


The Snow Fox and The Green Virus

by Haedonrocks



Series: Mystery Skulls Series [2]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Arthur and Laurel almost dies in a house fire., Arthur is not having a good time, F/M, Friendship, Galahad is a kitsune, Galahad is now the overprotective parent of Arthur, Galahad is pissed at Arthur, Kitsune fight, Laurel has a cat named Sisa, More characters to come, Mystery is starting to gain some weight, Mystery's past, Near Death, SynthCorp, The arm is captured, it does include death and violence, more secrets, new villains, side characters, the second story, the snow fox
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:15:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 47,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27484102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haedonrocks/pseuds/Haedonrocks
Summary: When the team gets back together, more problems occur. Like how an angered woman wearing a snow fox mask with an ancient blade are after Vivi and Mystery and a new secret about the green arm (Arthur's possessed arm) that shows that its someone else behind this, but who are they and what are they're plans? Meanwhile new and old friends speak out, giving the team some hope.
Relationships: Arthur & Lance (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur & Lewis & Mystery & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur & Lewis (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur & Mystery (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur and Galahad, Lewis & Mystery (Mystery Skulls Animated), Lewis/Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Mystery & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Series: Mystery Skulls Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746313
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	1. Talking to the Kitsune

**Author's Note:**

> Really excited about this and had this idea for months. This is the second part to the series and still plan to continue it.

What if the world stopped right now? What if none of this was real and that he was dreaming? Arthur had these thoughts for the past two hours since Uncle Lance had talked to him about what had happened last night. Him being almost drained to death by a crazy plant woman, or Shiromori as Lance told him, for his blood which was infected with kitsune blood. And the fact that he now knows that he killed Lewis and why he was after him the whole time. If he only knew sooner. 

He stood up out of the wooden chair, the warm sandwich still sitting there. Then, pushes the chair back in. “Why am I still alive?” He said to himself, disappointedly. Arthur felt like the world was against him. Probably the whole universe. He decides to head back downstairs, looking at the huge wreck he made out of anger and sadness. Arthur picks up a few things, cleaning up the place a little bit. Picking up tools, pieces of torn paper, and pencils that rolled on the floor. He picks the table back up along with the completely destroyed computer, maybe he can have the time to fix it and see if any of his data is saved. But he also realized that most of his data there was to find Lewis, which he already did. So what was the point of fixing the computer if he was going to fix his failure? 

He sits on the swivel chair, trying to clear his head. “Maybe I wasn’t ready for this.” He says to himself again. That’s when he started remembering the cave, Lewis’ death, Mystery ripping his arm off, the reason why Vivi lost her memories. Was he this unlucky, or is he a curse to anyone around him? His arms shake, legs feeling a bit numb, heart beating faster like a motor engine. His mind still repeats the incident, over and over again; like a song on replay. He breathes out of his mouth, cutting between. His ears covered by his flesh and metal hands that shake more than his head. Eyes closing to space out the reality around him. Whatever Shiromori did to his head, she had completely tortured him. 

But something else was there, but he wasn't sure to listen to it. The muffles of his name being called out, a male voice to be exact. Was he to ignore the voice? It seemed to grow louder, hearing his name called out a little clear, still muffed. “Arthur!” This voice shouts, putting something soft on his shoulder. Arthur jumps on the seat, opening his eyes and removing his hands away from his ears. He still breathes hard, afraid to turn the chair around to face whoever had come to him. “Please look at me.” A now familiar voice pleads. 

Arthur needed to control himself before speaking a word. “Mystery?” He asks, clutching his hands. He stood still, frozen like a statue. There were times that he feared Mystery, his true form that he saw many times last night, though it wasn’t that long. 

Mystery, in his kitsune form, loomed over Arthur. His expression shows worry and caring. Using one of his tails, he spins the chair around so Arthur could face the fox that wanted to speak to him. “We need to talk.” He softly demands. In the words that Mystery chooses shows no hate towards him, maybe it was fear. 

Arthur slowly nods his head. “Fine.” He gets out of the chair, looking down at the ground with his arms crossed. Mystery’s tail moved from under Arthur’s chin, pushing upwards so he could see him. He takes a deep breath. “Want to talk here or upstairs?” He asks. 

“Anywhere is fine.” Mystery insists. Arthur didn’t speak another word, he just walked up the stairs, Mystery following behind him. At the top of the stairs, Arthur sits down on the couch with Mystery sitting right in front of him. “I know you have some questions that need to be answered. But first, I have some too.” 

“Questions for me?” Arthur said, not understanding why a kitsune would want to ask him some things.

“Yes. I just need to figure out what happened last night.” Mystery says, being concerned. 

“What do you mean? I thought you knew everything that happened?” He questions. 

Mystery closes his eyes, exhaling deeply. “I do, but I mean from what happened before we got to her camp. I want to know what she did to you before we saved you.” He sounded so distressed and worried. Mystery, a seven tailed kitsune who has motive and encouragement to protect the people that he loves very much, is one that Arthur needs to be honest with. If he lies to him, who knows what might happen. Mislead? Trust issues? Anything can happen. 

His right arm grips on the mechanical arm tightly, nervous and afraid of what he’s about to say. “She wanted to kill me…..and I gave her that chance.” He said, not wanting to speak anymore. 

“Give her the chance? He asks, wanting him to repeat again. “What do you mean by that?” Now Mystery desires the truth from Arthur. 

“I wanted her to kill me. To take my life away after what I did.” Arthur tried his best to not break down right in front of him. “I killed him, Mystery. I killed Lewis.” 

“No you didn’t, you were possessed.” Mystery tells him, trying to be as supportive as he can. “I saw the whole thing.” 

“Then why didn’t you kill me?” Arthur asks him, feeling desperate. “Why rip my arm off?” 

“I never wanted to kill you. I was trying to save you.” Mystery says back, trying to get him to understand the truth. “You need to realize that I’m here to protect you.” He gets a bit closer. 

If Arthur wasn’t this afraid, he would have hugged him. Instead, he doesn’t move, not even daring to look up at him. “Why do you need to protect me? I just got you guys in danger.” He self-loathes himself for the damage he brought last night.

“Stop that!” Mystery angrily orders him, also giving Arthur a heart attack. “You are not going to put all of this on yourself. It was my fault that Shiromori got to you and almost killed you.” Arthur didn’t want to speak anymore after that. “Arthur, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He quickly apologizes. 

“I….I don’t know what to do.” He finally breaks down. “I’ve spent a whole year trying to find Lewis. A whole year!” He shouts, making Mystery take a step back. “What’s worse is that he was going to kill me, and I didn’t even know why!” He stood up, looking at Mystery. 

“Arthur-” 

“No! I’m sick and tired of this! My whole life is a wreck and I want to end it!” Arthur furiously shouts as tears went down his face. “Why did you have to save me!?” Mystery grabbed him, wrapped a paw and his tails around the crying boy and hugged him. 

“Listen to me.” The kitsune said, his snout right at Arthur’s left ear. “Your life is not a wreck and we both know it. You are a genius with a bright future ahead and friends who care about you. Don’t bring this on yourself, please. Even Lewis wants to apologize about what he's done.” 

“What?” Arthur asks, not knowing that his own best friend who tried to murder him wants to say sorry. 

“I told Lewis the whole story of what happened at that cave. Right now, he deeply regrets all he has done to you.” Mystery explains, still holding him close.

With a sniff, he asks, “Are you mad at him for that?” 

“There are many things that I’m mad at him for. But this is not the time to deal with them.” He finally lets go of Arthur as he calms himself down. “Now, I’m going to stay with you for a while until I get you all better again. I miss the old you.” He says with a smirk and a lick on Arthur’s face.

“I do too.” He breathes deeply. “I got to finish cleaning up the basement.” 

Before he did that, Mystery steps in his way. “Not so fast, what exactly did you do before I got here?” He asks, looking at the uneaten sandwich on the table. “Is that your sandwich?” 

“Umm, yeah. I really didn't do anything today besides make a mess in the basement.” Arthur said, with an innocent smile. 

Mystery didn’t show a smile back, instead was a lifted up eyebrow with a judging look. “Unless you want to have me drag you around, how about you start your day with hygiene and a meal?”

“Sure, I-I’ll get right to that.” He quickly rushes into the bathroom, going to take a shower. Mystery then showed a smile, knowing that he still has a chance to help Arthur. Ever since Arthur was sixteen, Mystery had always trusted him the first time they met. Although Arthur does make some mistakes in the team, nothing too serious or deadly. He has always known that Arthur was the tech genius in the team and made the perfect fit because of Lewis hiring him. 

He lays on the floor, transforming into his dog form so he could move around the house easier. Then walking towards the bathroom door, he shouts, “If you need to, I can make a list of all the things you need to do today, including some cuddles.” He smiles after the last part.

“Yeah….I’ll think about it.” He says in the shower. Not the best response to say, but will work. 

“Good, I’m here to make sure that you’ll be safe. Just remember that.” He then walks back to the living room, hopping on the couch before resting his eyes for a little nap. He’s the guardian of the team and if anyone dares to hurt any of them, including Lewis and his little deadbeat Jax, he will rip their limbs off and tear their organs apart. Or that’s what he thinks, not knowing it was Vivi who saved his life from Shiromori last night when she stabbed her right in the chest. Maybe he should let Vivi be his guardian. But still, one thing at a time and he can take care of those things easily.


	2. Night Out Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang (including Lance and Jax) have a night talk at the Kingsmen's Mechanics. Some are cocky while one is annoyed.

A week after the talk between Arthur and Mystery, Him, Mystery, Vivi, Lewis, Jax, and Lance were in the Kingsmen’s Mechanics at night deciding to talk away, drinking, and probably playing some games. Everyone except Mystery and Jax were sitting on chairs that Lance had gotten from his office and the lobby for them to sit on. “Look, I don’t want to say it, but I admit to being a workaholic.” Arthur says to Lewis who smiles at him. “And I don’t regret it one bit.” He sounded very happy to be back into his normal self with his friends and his uncle again. 

“Hey, I’m just saying.” Lewis says to him. “You do stay up most nights.” 

“I’ll agree with you Lewis, I keep seeing those bags under his eyes.” Mystery spoke up, smirking at him and Arthur. “Do I have to start dragging you to bed every night?” He asks Arthur as he looks the other way, his face turning red.

“No, no. I’ll go to bed on time.” Arthur cowardly says, laughing just a bit.

“Hey, I do that part, not you.” Lance teases Mystery. “But I’ll call you just in case I’m out of town, someone needs to babysit Arthur.” He laughs as Arthur scoffs.

“I can handle things on my own, just watch me.” Arthur speaks against Lance’s words, but only to have everyone laughing, even Jax. “What? It’s true.”

“Yeah, we believe you. It’s just that there were times that we had to get involved.” Vivi says, finishing her laugh. “I mean, Mystery here had to come by your house many times because you weren’t answering my calls.”

“I was busy.” He defends himself, crossing his arms upsetly. 

“Doing what? Working on your projects?” Vivi jokingly asks. 

“Yeah, how else am I supposed to be rich?” Arthur says back. 

“Right...anyway, I’m going to step outside for a bit if anyone wants to join me.” Vivi announced, standing up from the chair. 

“I’ll come with you.” Lewis too stands up from the other chair, walking with Vivi. The two, and Jax, walk outside of the building to look at the night sky that had stars shining brightly. “It looks beautiful out.” He said, starting a conversation. 

“Yeah.” Vivi says, agreeing with him. “It reminds me of when we used to drive around at night and look at the stars.” She turns to him. “Do you remember back in high school when you would show me what it’s like to be free from the world?” 

“Yeah, I would take you to the rooftops on buildings and we would jump from one to the next.” Lewis remembered well. It was something that the two were proud of, mostly their bravery against death. Yes, they were getting themselves in trouble and danger, but it was one of the reasons why they decided to hunt ghosts and the supernatural. “I just wish we could do those things again.” 

“Don’t worry, maybe we can. Well, now that you’re a ghost and…..” She stops her sentence, sighing softly before hugging Lewis. “Oh Lewis, it’s been a whole year since you were gone.” Vivi says, feeling a bit sad. 

“I know. I never would have realized what it’s like to be very lonely without you.” Lewis says, empathizing her. 

“So what am I to you, chopped liver?” Jax says as he comes out of the locket, a bit annoyed.

Vivi and Lewis start laughing. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that Jax.” Lewis says, patting the cute deadbeat’s head. “Anything else you like to know?” He goes back to Vivi.

“Yeah, I want to know how it feels to be a ghost, how your fire and elevation powers work, Jax, everything!” She gets back to being excited. “In fact, I should start some interviews, just to collect some information.” 

“You’re not planning to be a ghost too, are you?” Lewis started to get worried about Vivi’s plans.

“Of course not, but it’s amazing when my boyfriend becomes one.” She teases him along with a compliment, making Lewis blushing in his ghost form. 

“T-Thanks.” He stutters as he lets go of Vivi. “Should we go back inside or do you want to stay here for a bit?”

“Let’s stay, I want all of us to enjoy this beautiful night.” She answers delightly, as she and Lewis look up at the stars. Jax goes back into the locket, probably going to get some good rest. As a helping deadbeat, Jax always and will stay positive and help out him and his friends, no matter the cost. Lewis loves Jax, not because of how cute he is, but he’s been very helpful for him. Something that reminded him that he should trust people who help him the most.  
_____________________________________________________________________________

Back in the building, Arthur, Mystery, and Lance still had the same conversation with Lewis and Vivi. “I get enough sleep.” Arthur argues with both Lance and Mystery who seemed to doubt that. “In fact, I get a good amount of sleep each night.” 

"Oh really? Then can you explain the empty cans of energy drinks I keep finding in your trashcan in the basement?” Lance questions him like an interrogation. 

“Umm.” He ponders. “I just need the caffeine to keep on working.” He lightly explains.

“You mean working at night?” Mystery asks, lifting an eyebrow. “Arthur, if you keep doing these kinds of things, I might have to watch you 24/7.” Unlike Lance, who’s a jokester, Mystery is serious about this. He cares about Arthur’s health just like Vivi’s and Lewis’s. 

“I’m fine.” Arthur insists, making Mystery even more serious. “Look, I know that you still worry about me, but I promise that I won’t get myself in any danger.”

“The only danger I know that you’ll be in is called a bad mental and physical health.” The kitsune disappointedly says. Even Lance starts to get serious about this. “So, either you get to bed on time or I might have to do something about it.” He warns him as if it was some sort of threat that Arthur was being punished for. 

Arthur felt like he should listen to Mystery. He’s a giant seven tailed kitsune who could stop any demon and tear them apart. “Ok, I’ll get to bed in time.” 

“Good, now as for the energy drinks…” As Mystery was about to speak, Galahad from his cage started to squeak loudly, getting their attention. He sighs first before saying, “Arthur, can you deal with that tiny weakling?”

“Weakling?” Arthur says, as if he had beef with Mystery. “He’s just a cute hamster.” He goes to Galahad’s cage and opens it to grab the hamster with robotic wheels. “Now what’s your problem with Galahad?” He starts to question the unloving relationship between the fox and the hamster. 

“Nothing, but he’s very annoying when it comes with his squeaking.” He smirks just a bit as Arthur rolls his eyes. 

“Since you're going to be home more, how about you take him to your basement?” Lance suggests.

“Yeah, I can do that.” Arthur agrees. Ever since last year when Lewis was missing, Arthur had always wanted a pet to take care of just like how Vivi takes care of Mystery when he was a dog. Lance was the one who decided to get a hamster and Arthur agreed with him more than anything else. As he was looking at the hamsters, he found one that got his attention. A brown hamster who’s back legs seemed unusual. When he asked, the pet story employee told him that the hamster’s back legs weren’t working when they found him in the alley way. Saddened by this story, he decided to adopt the hamster, named him Galahad, and help him with his legs, by turning them into robotic wheels. At first Galahad was surprised with this new discovery of his new legs, but then happy enough to move around freely. To this day, Galahad was very calm with Arthur in his care. “Don’t worry buddy, I’ll make sure you get enough food for tonight.” He says to Galahad happily as he scratches his back. 

“Heh, talking to a hamster?” Mystery teases. “Maybe I should start putting you to bed early.” For some reason, Galahad growls only at the kitsune, making Mystery a bit curious and surprised. “Growling are you?” He smirks again, making fun of the hamster.

“Mystery stop.” Arthur demands, getting a bit frustrated with him. “He’s just a hamster, nothing more.” He sits down on the chair, still soothing Galahad. 

“Sorry, it’s been some time I teased the little guy.” And he wasn’t wrong. Mystery always had played with Galahad when they first met, though he never talked to the hamster. He likes to chase him around the workshop when Arthur is working, although it annoys Arthur a lot with dangerous objects in the way. “Hopefully he isn’t afraid of my true form right now.” 

“He’s not scared, Mystery. He’s brave.” Arthur tells him. 

“Hey, just be lucky that he hadn’t eaten him like how he ate your arm.” Lance joins in, joking around.

“Uncle!” Arthur accusingly shouts at him. “Are you drunk!?” 

“No, but I wish.” He wheezes, slapping his knee.

“That’s funny, but I really didn’t eat your arm.” Mystery honestly says. “Just tossed it back in the depths of those spikes.” 

“God.” Arthur groans. “To think that someone who teases a person with a robotic arm and a hamster calls himself a wise kitsune.”

“I am, you just don’t see it often.” Arthur couldn’t count the many times that Mystery had teased and smirked at him, it just makes him wish that he only knew Mystery as a mindless dog. 

The door to the lobby opens, revealing Vivi and Lewis. “Hey guys, I’m going home. Mystery if you want to stay…”

“I’ll come with you, I’m really tired tonight.” Mystery spoke, swaying his tails before walking with Vivi. “Goodnight guys.” He says to them. Before he left, he could see Galahad glaring at him very viciously and angry. Though he doesn’t know why, he decides to ignore it and leave the room with Vivi. 

“Are you going to Lewis?” Arthur asks the ghost who crosses his arms.

“I thought I could talk to you.” Lewis says, sounded a bit interested in Arthur. “Just for a moment.”

“Well, while you two chat, I’m gonna go back to my office to sleep.” Lance says, getting up the chair as he stretches his body.

“You’re not going to sleep at home?” Arthur asked him, curiously. 

“Kid, work ain’t that easy. But I’ll change that soon when you’re back on track. Goodnight Arthur, Lewis.” 

“Goodnight Lance.” Lewis said as Lance left the building. Arthur felt unsure about this. He was alone in the room with his best friend who tried to kill him last week and accused him of killing him. “Arthur?” 

“Yeah?” He says, getting his full attention on Lewis. 

“You don’t have to be a bit jumpy.” He said, sounding very calm to him.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to.” He then places Galahad back into his cage. “About what-”

“Before you do talk, I have something to say.” Lewis interrupts him. “I want to apologize about everything that happened during that night, when I chased you and almost killed you.”

“I see.” Arthur puts his hands in his pockets. “Do you want me to apologize too?”

“For what?” Lewis says, not understanding why.

“For killing you.” He bluntly answers. “I mean, wasn’t it the reason why you did it?” 

“But that was because I didn’t know you were possessed until Mystery told me and he seemed really angry about it with me, plus taking Vivi’s memories.” He explains. 

Arthur sat on the chair, feeling bad for Lewis to go through all of this. If he hadn’t gone into that cave, maybe Lewis would still be alive. “So does this mean we’re friends again?” 

“If you want too. After what I’ve done, I don’t think anyone will be friends with a ghost.” He self-loathes himself. 

“No, I want to be friends.” He quickly stands up, staring into the dark empty eyes of the ghost. "Lewis, ever since I came with you and the others, I felt nothing but happy. You were the only friends I’ve ever had in my life.” That’s when he just realized that he had gotten the encouragement to talk to Lewis normally as if he was human. “And even after the things that happened, I promise that nothing will tear us apart.” He holds out his hand for a shake with him, instead Lewis smiles and brings Arthur in for a hug. 

“Thanks Artie, I needed that.” Lewis said, feeling a lot happier now. “And I promise to protect you whenever you’re in trouble.” Once they let go of each other, they smiled and stared. “So you want me to drive you home?”

“Sure, but how? Vivi took the car and the van is still damaged.” To this, Lewis smirks in his ghost form.

“Who says I still don’t have the truck?” He takes Arthur outside to show him the same truck that Lewis once threw him in.

“Whoa.” Arthur would’ve had PTSD moments from it, but instead he was amazed. “You really have to tell me how you did that.” He said as they got into the truck.

“I have my ways.” He drove the truck as Arthur sat on the passenger seat. “And just because Mystery and Lance aren’t here doesn’t mean you can stay up, I’ll have deadbeats watching you.” Lewis friendly warns him.

“Seriously?” Arthur groans as Lewis laughs. They are best friends, even after death, and will make sure they got each other’s back.


	3. The Woman in the White Fox Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A japanese man gets an unexpected visitor who's looking for his old neighbors.

All the way back in Japan, an old japanese man sat on his porch that was connected to his perfect three story house that included an attic, basement, a backyard that he used as a flower farm, and a balcony that was connected to his bedroom. The man himself was somewhere between his sixties and seventies with white hair and a wrinkly face. The clothes he’s wearing is a brown button up shirt that’s tucked in his dark blue jeans. He had bright brown sandals with no socks. His name is Hoshi Gregory, a farmer/florist who sells plants for herbs and spices for 35 years. He’s a man of focus and encouragement who never fails to deliver a shipment on time. 

Hoshi gets up from his old rocking chair that creaks with every move it makes. Taking his cup of tea with him, he goes back inside his house to check on his flowers from his back window that looked dirty in weeks, if months. The garden was full of colorful flowers that looked like an actual rainbow from the ground. Each of these flowers had a unique purpose into their physical ability for science. Although some are rare, he grew a whole bunch for legal selling. 

He walks away from the window and puts his teacup on the counter. Then, sits down on the couch as he reads a book he’s been wanting to finish that introduces a story of a young boy who’s lost in the woods with no food, water, nor shelter. That was until this kitsune had helped him use his survival skills to live in the dangerous woods. Hoshi never believed that kitsunes existed in the real world, that they were just a myth. His parents even said that to him when he was just a kid. Yet the thought of if they were real fascinates him. Of course not as a pet, but to keep one in the family as a guardian. 

During his time, he reads at least twenty pages of the book before he closes it and puts it next to him on the coffee table. The tea he had drank made him feel very sleepy and tired, so he leans back onto the couch, closing his eyes, and tilting his head back. 

It all seemed fine for the next hour until a loud and sudden crash woke him up in a jolt. He felt like he was about to have a heart attack if something like that happened again. He turns around to find no one in the room with him. Hoshi gets up from the couch quickly, grabbing a fire poker from the fireplace. “Who’s there?” He asks, demanding for someone to appear. There was only silence, nothing that Hoshi could hear. He carefully walks around, trying to see what caused the crash. 

He looks around to find no broken windows or open doors. In the kitchen, he finds out that his teacup that was on the counter is missing. It was indeed strange to him, but maybe he could have placed it at the edge. His mind wasn’t clear like it used to be when he was young. Hoshi walks to the other side of the counter to see the broken pieces of the teacup on the tiled floor. He sighs lightly, knowing that no one had broken into his house.

“Hello Hoshi.” A woman’s voice whispers to Hoshi as he gasps. This woman didn’t give the old man a chance to turn around since she swept his legs. He falls to the ground, lucky enough to not land on the broken pieces of the teacup. The hostile woman then flips him around on his back. Hoshi could see the woman who was wearing a black sweatshirt with it’s hoodie covering her head and blue jeans that were tight and covered with dirt. Her hazel eyes were seen behind an old white fox mask with tiny bits of cracks, meaning that this mask must have been made with some sort of clay. She stands on her knees on the man, putting one hand on his shoulder with the other on his throat. “Where’s the Yukinos?” She asks him, wanting to know where they are.

“I-I’m s-sorry?” Hoshi stutters, fearing for his life as this mysterious woman was interrogating him. 

“Where…..are….they?” She pauses between words as she gets closer to his face. 

He breathes out of his mouth quickly, struggling to get her off. “I don’t k-know who they are.” He lies, knowing exactly who they are. 

She starts to lose her patience as she pulls out an ancient black steel blade from her leathery sheath that was attached to her side. “Last chance or I’ll cut your throat wide open.” She takes the sharp side close to his throat, ready to cut if needed. “And trust me, we both don’t want that.” 

Hoshi didn’t want to die now, not when he still had his flowers. “Wait! I’ll talk!” He shouts scaredly, making the woman further the blade from his throat. “They are in America, I don’t know which part. But they said they were going there for a new start.” The truth was that Hoshi was the family's neighbor years ago before they left for the United States. He remembers that they have a daughter, although he couldn’t remember her name. “Why do you even want them?” Hoshi asks, now fearing for their lives.

“Because they owe me something, Really bad.” She gets off of Hoshi, putting the blade back in it’s sheath. “Smart move you made.” She walks to the backdoor which was unlocked just by the bolt. 

“I’m going to call the police on you!” He angrily shouts, threatening at her. 

She could've killed him right at the spot, but instead she laughs and says, “Go ahead, they won’t be able to find a trail.” The woman in the white fox mask walks off, closing the door behind her. Hoshi weakly stood up, his heart beating fast. It has been the first time he had a near death experience in his life, lucky enough to still be alive after all of those years of war. Knowing the right thing to do, he goes to his wall phone and dials 110. Hoshi then thinks of what she said, that the police won’t find a trail off of her. He hopes that they will, or the Yukino’s will be in great danger if this woman will kill a person. By why? What does this woman want from the family?


	4. Will they?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vivi tells Lewis what kind of ghost he is. As they do more research, they Vivi meets an old friend of hers. Meanwhile a secret is revealed when two soldiers are collecting the green arm that was supposed to be possessed.

Two more weeks had passed for the whole gang. Lewis and Vivi were back in his mansion, the one that he had simply brought them too on the night disaster struck. “I’m glad you took me back here, I never really got to see the whole house.” Vivi said, holding Lewis’ hand. 

“It’s my pleasure. As a gentleman, I have to poliety treat my guests, make them feel happy and enjoy the experience.” Lewis, in his human-like form, says very nice and calm. “But you are more special than a guest. You're my queen.” He compliments her as he gets down on his knees and kisses her the back of her hand. 

Vivi blushes, her cheeks turn to a shade of bright red. “Oh Lewis, you are the one my life has destined for.” She said, as she gets Lewis back on his feet. “So, are we going to stand here or are you going to show me around?” She teases him. 

“As you wish.” He said with a smirk, walking with her to each room of the house. Some of the rooms he shows Vivi were the ones she has been to before, like the main entrance, the kitchen, the hallway, and possibly more. But the rooms he hasn’t shown her was his bedroom which had a huge king size bed, some drawers, a bathroom, a giant window to look out, and a walk-in closet.

“Holy moly! I never knew that ghosts can live like this!” Vivi talks, in awe by the things her own dead boyfriend has. 

“Well, it’s part of the mansion I possess now. Although it still does impress me.” Lewis then floats to his bed, displaying it to her. “Try out the bed.” 

“Don’t mind if I do.” Vivi gladly said, getting on the bed to only feel how comfortable it was. “Even your bed feels a lot better than mine.” She presses her hand down on the mattress to see it sink in. “I’m starting to get jealous Lew Lew.” She calls him by his nickname. 

“Hey, you are welcome to stay here anytime you want.” Lewis insists. “Even Arthur and Mystery, although I don’t want him to piss on the bed.” 

“Which one are you talking about?” Vivi asks.

“I want to say Mystery, but Arthur has been overdoing it on energy drinks and doesn’t do bathroom breaks.” Lewis points out as the two laugh. “He really needs help.”

“Mystery and Lance are doing their best to get Arthur back to himself again.” Vivi reminds him. “Or that’s what I hope.” She grabs Lewis’ hand, rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb. “Because if they don’t, we might have to step in.” 

“It’s like teamwork all together.” Lewis said, putting a hand on her hip and bringing her closer. He then takes that hand and puts it to the back of her head, leaning in close for a kiss that they wanted for so long. It felt different for Vivi, like this wasn’t a kiss she wasn’t expecting. On the other hand, the other part of her mind says that it’s just like when he was alive. Something else had crossed her mind, making her move her head away from Lewis and look at the bed with a frown. “Is something wrong Vi?” Lewis worriedly asks. “Was the kiss too much?”

“No, the kiss was fine. I just thought of something.” She looks back up at him. “After you died, what was the first thing on your mind?” Vivi asks, sadly. 

Lewis takes a deep breath. “The first thing that came into my mind was probably anger since I wanted revenge for what happened to me. I couldn’t control it at first when I kept thinking that Arthur would kill me for some reason.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Vivi said with a sad sigh.

“What’s going on?” He was getting more worried, wanting to know what Vivi was thinking.

“How do I explain this? I guess yesterday when I was doing some research on what type of ghost you are, there was one type that got my interest. It’s called a revenge spirit.” She says, explaining what he is.

“A revenge spirit?” Lewis never heard of that type of ghost before, maybe it was new. 

“Yes, it’s a ghost whose only goal is to kill the person who murdered them. Knowing what happened in that cave, there must be something that’s still alive there and probably the reason why you are still here.” Vivi wonders, trying to figure out what it is.

“Maybe Arthur? He’s the first person I accused of killing me from the start.” Lewis still remembers about all the anger he had for him. 

“But if that’s the case, why would Jax tell you to save him if he’s the killer?” Vivi did have a good point there. Jax would have agreed with Lewis if Arthur really did kill him instead of telling him that Arthur was innocent. “Maybe it’s something else.” 

“But why are you interested in all of this?” Lewis questions. He knows that the interviews that he did for her was awesome, but what was her plan?

“Well, the thing with ghosts is that when they have a goal that’s completed, they move on to the afterlife. I know that it seems wrong for this to happen, but I just feel wrong keeping you here for eternity.” Vivi said, looking at him in the eyes. 

“Vi, I don’t feel trapped.” Lewis hugs Vivi. “All I want is to stay with you guys until it’s time, you don’t need to free me because you think of that.” 

“I know….I’m sorry.” She apologizes, feeling terrible about what she said to him.

“Don’t be. I know how bad you are going through right now.” He comforts her, rubbing her back. “Maybe there’s a way we can fix this.” 

Lewis lets go of Vivi, seeing that she had tears running down her eyes. “Yeah, I should head to the library to do some more research.” She got off of the bed as Lewis floated out. 

“I’ll come with you.” He holds her hand again as the two are leaving the mansion. “Thinking about it now, if I do choose to rest in peace, how will you survive without me?”

“I still have Arthur and Mystery, we can all watch each other’s backs.” Vivi said as they headed outside the mansion. It was still day time for them, meaning that they got a whole bunch of time at the library. So they went into Lewis’s ghost truck and drove to the town’s library where they should hold some good information about ghosts.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Back at the cave where tragedy struck, a light gray van pulls up to the place. The van was just like the Mystery Skulls van except that it said the words, ‘SynthCorp’. Two men wearing a black military suit with armor hops out of the van. They also had advanced gas masks that could help them breath in infected places that could be filled with dangerous chemicals. One of them had a suitcase which read, ‘Classified’ on the side. “Are you sure it’s in this place?” One of them asked. 

“The tracker said so.” The other man answers without a doubt. “Let’s go in and find it.” The two strange men head inside the cave to find whatever they were trying to find. They turned on their flashlights that were attached onto their rifles. “Remember to inject it before collecting the thing.” 

“Got it.” The soldier takes a syringe out of his pocket, prepared to use it immediately if needed. The two ended up at a path that splits in two. “I’ll take left, and you’ll take right?” 

“Affirmative.” The other man said, going down the right path as the other one went to the left. The soldier who went to the right scopes around the place, seeing the spikes up close. “Hmm, now why stay here?” He asks himself, still looking around.

“Do you see it?” The man on the left shouts.

“No, nothing yet.” He shouts back. It didn’t seem like a dangerous job for the two since no one else was in the area besides them. “Here’s a question, what caused it to tear apart from the host?” He asks. 

“An animal probably, a cougar to be exact.” The soldier on the cliff answers, not sure either.

“I didn’t know cougars can rip off limbs that easily and quickly.” It was the first time that he could’ve heard about this. All of the sudden, he hears some sort of movement coming from behind him. He turns around to find a green moving arm with a black wristband and a black and green eye. “I found it!” He shouts before grabbing hold of it. “It’s a fighter!” His teammate rushed down so he could inject the green arm with some sort of propofol. It calms the arm down until it stops moving. 

“The commander is going to be happy about this.” He then opens the suitcase so the other soldier can place the arm inside before locking it all up. “Give him a call.”

“I will.” He gets out his phone and dials a phone number, mostly likely the commander they’re talking about. “Sir, we got the arm…...yes sir…..we will…...affirmative.” He hangs up. “He wants us to deliver it to him.”

“Understood, let’s go.” So the two soldiers leave the cave once and for all before entering the van with the arm in the suitcase. The van drives off of the rocky sand and onto the road where their next destination is to deliver the arm.  
______________________________________________________________________________

“Hmm, I’m not sure this will help.” Vivi says, showing Lewis the book that he gave her for any ghost information. She puts the book on the shelf and keeps looking. “There has to be something in here that can help us.” 

“I hope so, this library is the place that has every information on the plant.” Lewis said, putting a few books back because it didn’t have the info they were finding. “Are you sure that I will still be here even after I get my revenge?” He whispers to her so no one else could hear.

“I’m really not sure. In fact, I don’t think that you could stay forever if you want to.” Vivi felt scared after saying that.

“What do you mean? I thought ghosts can live forever.” Lewis was being doubtful on what Vivi said.

“I thought so too, but I just learned that there are creatures that can take their souls with them to the underworld so they can torture them. That’s terrifying.” She said, almost raising her voice. 

“Don’t worry, I can destroy them with my new fire powers.” He winks at her before looking for some more. 

“Alright.” She looks to her right and then back at Lewis. “Hey, I’m going to look over there for any ghost books.” 

“Ok, just find me when you get something.” Lewis requests as Vivi walks to the bookshelf on her right. 

She scans the aisle for anything that can help her. “Nothing here.” At the end of the shelf she could see someone on the other side, looking at some books. Vivi couldn’t help but to ask the person if they knew anything about ghost books. “Excuse me. I’m really sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you have seen any ghost books that talk about Revenge Spirits.”

“No, but your voice sounds amazing.” The woman’s voice said from the other side, complementing Vivi. 

“Thanks, you t-” She had to stop herself mid sentence. Vivi knew that voice from somewhere, but where? It had an hispanic accent with a bit of beauty in it. “Now why do I remember your voice?” She asks the woman who Vivi has not seen her face.

“Maybe back when we were in high school.” She said, having some confidence in her tone. “Do you remember well Vivian?” 

Her eyes went wide with her jaw dropped. She hasn’t been called by that, besides her family, ever since her best friend from 11th grade. She goes to the end of the shelf as the woman did the same thing. Vivi was in shock when she finally faced the woman she remembered very well. “Laurel?” She asks, seeing her old best friend who smiles at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Laurel belongs to a friend of mine on Tumblr, lauritanomystery.


	5. Laurel Inti

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a glimpse to Laurel's life at college while they started to talk about how they are doing while drinking coffee at the cafe.

It was three years ago when she attended New York State University. A place where she believes where she can become one of the best lawyers in the state. Twenty one year old hispanic woman Laurel Inti walks the halls of the building that include classes for law and enforcement. She was wearing her casual business suit and tie with a neat shade of brown and no sign of dust particles on the cloth. Laurel enters the classroom that was for students who were also planning to be lawyers. She sits on a seat and pulls out a notebook and pencil from her backpack. The notebook was labeled, ‘How to be a Lawyer 101’ a name that Laurel had come up with as a way to remember why she was here in the first place. “Okay class, today we are going to learn about how to show your confidence in a courtroom.” The professor said, teaching the college students. Laurel had the need to write every single thing that he said, because she thinks that it’s very important when you have the job. “Confidence is the stride of bravery. To control your bravery, you need to feel calm and know what you are up against. Your clients are counting on you to help them, not the other way around.” Laurel writes all of this information in as the professor writes on the whiteboard. “It’s not just confidence that you need, it’s your ability to speak well and clearly to the audience, the judge, and jury.” She writes this down too. Although she spoke spanish first, she had some great skill in speaking english too.

About two hours later, the professor began to dismiss the class. Everyone started to pack up their things and were ready to leave the room for their next class. Laurel also packs up her things, putting her used notebook and pencil in her bag. But right as she stands up, the professor calls her name. “Yes professor?” She asks.

“May I talk to you for a minute?” He requests. Laurel nods and walks over. The professor, or by his name Cameron Prince, is a wise man who’s taught many things about being a lawyer. He wore a plain striped suit with a bowtie, some brown khakis, and black leathery and shiny shoes. “I just want to say how you spent all of your time here is amazing. I’ve seen you write everything down I taught you and pass all of the exams I’ve given you.”

“Thank you professor, I keep my time well and neat.” She responds with a positive thank you. “I’m just glad that you are here to teach me...sorry, us about being a lawyer.” She fixes herself, including every student in the class. 

“It’s what I do best.” Cameron said with a smirk. “I promise you, that you’ll be one of the most professional lawyers there is in this class, maybe in the state if you went to a real trial.” 

“I’ve always wanted to go to one, but I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.” Laurel said, feeling a bit nervous.

“Don’t worry, you still have a lot more things to learn. Now, I won’t trap you here for the next five minutes so you can head to your next class.” He said, letting Laurel leave.

“Thank you professor. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Laurel said as she walked to the door.

“See you at that time.” He said back as Laurel left the room. She felt this feeling of joy and confidence from what he had said to her. Walking down the hall, she gives out a huge smile as her eyes sparkle. Laurel knew that it was her time to shine, that she would show the professor what he had done to make her the best lawyer there is.  
______________________________________________________________________________

That was a month ago, now she stands face to face with her old best friend Vivi, or as she calls her Vivian, who looked in shock. Laurel Inti, still twenty one years old is a hispanic woman with black hair that’s tied into a long tail with brown eyes and smooth skin. Her clothes look stylish with a necklace that had an ancient symbol that Vivi doesn’t know about. “I guess it’s been sometime since we last saw each other in a long time.” Laurel said as Vivi’s smile brightens up and goes in for a big hug.

“Laurel, I thought I’ll never see you again.” Vivi said, tightly squeezing her. 

“Well I told you we should’ve gotten each other’s phone numbers.” She said with a grunt. Vivi lets go of her and sighs happily. 

“Yeah, that’s because I didn’t have a phone back then.” She reminds her. 

“Oh right. Anyway, how are you doing?” Laurel asks.

“I’m doing pretty fine. Just looking at some books.” Vivi tells her. 

“Right, you were asking me about something about ghost books.” That made Vivi a bit embarrassed as she remembered what she had asked before. 

“Yeah. Oh, do you remember Lewis?” Vivi asks, seeing if Laurel remembers him from high school.

“Yeah, he’s the guy you're dating, right?” Laurel didn’t know Lewis very well since Vivi was being very secretive about him for some reason. “How is he?” 

“I don’t know, let me go ask him.” Vivi then walks to the other side of the bookshelf, Laurel following her behind. “Lewis, look who I found.”

Lewis looks at Vivi and someone else, that he remembered very well. “Laurel? Is that you?”

“Yeah it’s me.” She then went for a handshake that he accepted. “How is it going?” 

Lewis took his time to figure out what to say besides that he was dead and a ghost. “It’s going great. Still working with my family at Pepper Paradiso.” 

“That’s good to hear. I’m still becoming a lawyer soon.” Laurel tells him what she does. “Are you two still paranormal investigators?” 

“We sure are, and we got a new member on the team. His name is Arthur.” Vivi said.

“Cool, I’ll love to meet him soon.” Laurel says, crossing her arms as she looks at Vivi. “You guys want to get some coffee and talk?”

Lewis and Vivi looked at each other, figuring out if they should or not. The goal was to find some simple instructions to help Lewis with his ghost problem. “Yeah, why not?” Vivi says as Lewis nods his head. “I know a diner that we can get coffee at, follow me.” 

So the three walk out of the library where Lewis and Vivi get in their semi-truck while Laurel drives her clean white Honda. Laurel was very impressed with the truck Lewis had. She wondered how much it must have cost. Once they were on the road, Laurel drove behind the truck, following them to the diner Vivi said they would go. A few miles later, they parked their cars at the diner. Laurel gets out of her car as she sees Lewis help Vivi get out of the truck. “So this is the place?” Laurel asks as she walks with them.

“Yeah, it’s a good place. Me, Lewis and Arthur come here all the time.” Vivi says, walking the two into the diner. From there, she tells the waitress that she would like to sit in the booth with them. At the booth, Lewis and Vivi sit on one side as Laurel sat on the other side. 

The waitress came by, the same one who gave Vivi and Arthur their food and drinks weeks ago. Sarah got out her notepad and pencil so she could write down their orders. “Welcome back miss.” She said to Vivi, remembering the last time she came here. “What can I do for you three today?” She asks politely. 

“All of us would like some coffee please.” Vivi says as Lewis and Laurel nodded their heads. 

“Ok, I’ll get those prepared for you then.” She walks off with their order.

As they wait for their coffee, Lewis looks at Laurel and asks, “So you said something about becoming a lawyer?” 

“Oh yeah, I’m attending New York State University to learn how to become a lawyer, one of the best is what I hope for.” Laurel explains. “Let’s just say that I’m a few months from becoming one soon.” 

“That’s nice to hear.” Lewis replies with positivity. “My foster parents always tell me that I could be anything when I grow up, but not a lawyer or the president, I just don’t have enough experience for that.” 

“Don’t worry, you still have many careers to choose.” Vivi tells him, making Lewis smile. 

Sarah comes back with the three cups of coffee. “Here are your three cups of coffee.” She said, giving them the cups. “I’ll come back later with a check.” 

“Sounds good, thank you.” Vivi says as Sarah walks off again. Vivi started to drink her coffee, only to have her lips burn. “Oh wow, that’s hot.”

“Yeah, it’s hot coffee for a reason.” Lewis said, taking a sip only to not be burned by the coffee since he is a ghost. Laurel took notice of that as she blew on her coffee. 

“What about you two and your supernatural hunting? Did you get any ghosts?” Laurel asks them, wanting to know about their hobby. 

The two looked back at each other, still trying to figure out how to answer her without explaining about how Lewis is a ghost, Vivi is a samurai, their friend Arthur is having a crisis, while their dog, Mystery is a seven tailed kitsune. “Umm, well we didn’t get any ghosts, but we did find some haunting places.” 

“Really? You got to take me there sometime.” Laurel said in amazement. She likes the supernatural, although she never did it before. But thinking about finding a ghost really excited her, even if they are sometimes dangerous and could scar her. 

“Maybe, we just need someone to call us.” Vivi blows on her coffee and takes a sip. “To think that we’ve changed the last time we saw each other.” 

“Yeah.” She said with a giggle. Laurel’s smile disappeared when she noticed the scar on Vivi’s cheek. “Hey, what happened to your cheek?” 

Vivi was completely silent after Laurel asked about her scar that she got from Shiromori. “I…..accidentally cut my self when I went on a jog.” She lies.

“A jog?” Laurel gave her the raised eyebrow. 

“Yeah, I really don’t know how to explain it except that I tripped and fell.” Vivi really hopes that Laurel doesn’t go deeper into this. “Right Lewis?” She turns to him, hoping that he could help.

“Yeah, that cut was pretty good.” Lewis said, putting his arm over her shoulder, smiling at her. 

“Ok then. Anyway, I’m staying at a hotel for a few days. It’s just by the highway near the airport.” Laurel said, letting the two know.

“I never got to ask, but why did you come here?” Vivi questions.

“Oh, I thought I could see you again.” Laurel bluntly answers. “It gets a bit lonely when I’m working 24/7 back in New York.” 

“Then it’s a good thing that we found each other.” As they talked, Sarah came by with the check. “I’ll pay for it.” Vivi said, being the one to pay for the coffee.

“No, I should.” Laurel insists. 

“But you’re the guest and it was my idea.” Vivi said back, taking out her credit card and giving it to Sarah. “I always got your back.” 

“Thank you.” Sarah said again before taking the card to the cash register. 

“So, you’re staying here for a few days?” Vivi asks Laurel. 

“Yeah, I thought I could spend a few days with you guys before I got to head back to my learning.” She stood up and took one last sip of her coffee before putting it down. “Can we take these to go?” 

“I can ask.” Vivi said, waiting for Sarah to come back. Once she returns, Vivi asks for to-go cups and Sarah nods and gets them right away. “You can stay at my place if you want.” Vivi tells Laurel, insisting that Laurel can stay at Vivi’s house for those few days. 

“It’s fine, I did pay lots of money to stay at that hotel.” She stood up and got her purse. Sarah came back with the three plastic coffee cups. “Thank you.” She says to Sarah.

“You’re welcome. Have a great day you three.” Sarah tells them. 

“You too.” Vivi says back as she, Lewis, and Laurel pours their coffee into the plastic cups. Then walked out of the diner where Laurel gives Vivi a hug. 

“Thanks for taking me here. I had fun with you guys.” Laurel said, happily. 

“Anytime. If we do get a ghost hunt soon, I’ll make sure to call you.” Vivi promises. 

“Ok, I’ll love to find some ghosts. I have to head back to the hotel to get some things done, see you later.” 

“See you later.” Vivi said, waving to her as Laurel got in her car. And just like that, Laurel drove off back to her hotel. “She’s a nice friend Lewis.”

“I know, I’m happy that we got to see her again. Now, you want to go back to the library to continue our search?” Lewis asks.

Vivi thought about it, knowing how much time they wasted. “Umm, nah. We can do it tomorrow. Let’s check on Arthur to make sure he’s doing alright.” 

“Ok then, hop in.” Lewis said, unlocking the truck as they both got in and started to drive off. As they were driving to Arthur’s house, Vivi decided to give him a phone call to tell him that they are on their way to his house. “Calling Arthur?”

“Yeah, just as a heads up.” Vivi said, dialing his number.

“Good, because it looks like we got traffic up ahead.” Lewis said as the two saw the long line of cars that were heading in the direction to his house.

“Great.” Vivi complains, still trying to call Arthur. Once he picked up, Vivi spoke. “Hey, Arthur. We are just on our way to your house.”


	6. A New Danger Awaits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mystery talks to Grandma Yukino, only to have her get a vision of Arthur's life on the line.

It’s been sometime since Mystery had been home alone, well almost since Grandma Yukino was still in her room. He’s on the couch, in his dog form, thinking of what to do. Vivi and Lewis went out, Arthur was at home and Lance was working in the workshop, so he had no one to talk to, again except Grandma Yukino. It seemed risky going into her room and interrupting her on something right after she was calling him a mutt for being foolish for his mistakes. But what are the chances that she might be doing something other than meditating or anything that didn’t involve a conversation? A 50/50 he would call it. So he gets off the couch and heads upstairs to talk to her. Down the hall, he sits in the front of the door to the right. Mystery takes a deep breath before opening it with his paws, needing to stand on his hind legs to do it. The door clicks and he goes back on his fours, entering the dark room except for the light candles. “I knew you would come here.” Grandma said, sitting on the floor, her tone shows how annoyed she already is by him entering her room. 

“I thought that I could have a conversation with my favorite wise elderly woman.” Mystery said with a nervous smile. Calling her a wise elder woman was probably much better than just calling her old, though she didn’t seem amused by that name.

She sighs. “I got nothing else better to do, so take a seat.” Mystery walks closer to her, sitting down on the ground. 

“So, do you want to talk to me in this form or…” He holds out a paw. She glares at him, not saying a word. “Right, I’ll just stick to this.” He exhales a bit before continuing on. “How have you been up lately?” 

“Enough with the time wasting talks and tell me what you really want.” She bluntly said, very annoyed and irritated. 

“I just wanted to talk to you, nothing else.” Mystery states, trying to calm her down.

“I know you want to talk to me, you’re just hiding the right subject.” She squints at him, leaning closer to see if he was sweating.

“Alright, I just want to apologize for everything that happened over the years. With me making Shiromori, getting the gang almost killed, Arthur mostly.” Mystery rubs the back of his head, feeling a bit ashamed of himself. “I thought that I could say that you were right about me putting everyone in danger.” 

“And what am I supposed to do with this information?” She said as if it wasn’t her priority. 

“Well, whenever someone says sorry, the other person should forgive them.” He whines a little knowing how bad that sounded. “Please, I promise that it’ll never happen again.”

She raises her eyebrow at him, feeling a bit uncertain, yet satisfied that a seven hundred year old kitsune that’s disguised as a small dog was saying sorry to an old woman. “Fine, apology accepted. You better keep my granddaughter safe from now on, it’s a big world out there for a small girl like her.” 

Mystery stood up, transforming into his kitsune form so he could be able to wrap himself around her for a gentle hug. Grandma wasn’t happy about him transforming back into his true form. But knowing that Shiromori is gone forever, it wasn’t a big deal anymore unless Vivi’s parents were home. “I swore on my life that Vivi and the others will be safe under my care.” 

“That’s good because your adventure is not over yet.” She tells him, closing her eyes. 

He jerked his head towards her in confusion. “What do you mean by that?” He asks, concerned and afraid. 

“I mean that you have another danger up ahead. I can sense it.” Mystery whines, feeling very worried at the moment.

“Are they as dangerous as Shiromori?” He asks, questioning what she knows.

“No, but they hold secrets. Dark secrets.” She screams in pain as she places her forehead on the ground. 

“Are you okay!?” Mystery shouts in fear as he wraps a tail around her. He sits up, trying to save her from what is happening with her head. “What’s going on!?” 

Grandma gasps. “It’s…...worse.” She shakenly stood up, grabbing on to her cane. 

“What’s worse?” He asks, still holding onto her by his tail. 

“Arthur. He’s……” She couldn’t speak after what she had witnessed. It gave Mystery a whole lot of anxiety when she spoke his name. Neither him nor Arthur could catch a break without getting themselves in danger just by doing nothing. 

“What’s wrong with him? Is it his blood?” Mystery says this because he still remembers how he accidently transformed Arthur’s blood into his. It was the reason why Shiromori almost killed him. 

“No, I don’t know what. All I know is that he is going to be in grave danger soon.” She warns as Mystery begins to shake in fear. He wasn’t going to lose Arthur, not just as he and others just saved his life. 

“Then I need to get to him!” He quickly heads out for the door, escaping the house through the backdoor as he rapidly runs to Arthur’s house. Grandma walks slowly over to her bed, sitting down before she rubs her eyes. Did Mystery apologize too soon, just before she got a vision of Arthur’s life being endangered by whatever wants him dead? She hopes it’s not because of his blood, though there are other creatures who would kill a person for some.


	7. Galahad?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to get crazy for Arthur as his own hamster transforms into a kitsune and has a desire hatred for Mystery.

Arthur couldn’t help himself. His projects were waiting for him to be idealized and created, making him lose time to sleep. He sits down on the swivel chair, writing in his journal full of notes and ideas. Energy drinks were found on the table and inside the small trash can. Who knows how many he drank? He was lucky that the others weren’t here to see this or Arthur might never get these projects done. Behind him was his pet hamster Galahad who was in his cage. Arthur had taken him home the day after the night out at the workshop. He fed, played, and even groomed Galahad, bonding a good relationship between the two. He yawns, knowing how tired he is, but refuses to sleep. So he grabs a can of an energy drink and takes a big sip before getting back to work. If that wasn’t distracting enough, his phone vibrates on the desk. The screen showed Vivi’s name and he answered the call, putting it on speaker. “Vivi?”

“Hey, Arthur. We are just on our way to your house.” She said, making Arthur put down his pencil and picking up his phone. 

“What, why?” He asks, concerned with Vivi’s plan. 

“You sound off, are you okay?” Vivi asks, also being concerned by his tone. 

“I’m fine. Just sitting here, relaxing.” He felt shaky, probably nervous that Vivi and Lewis were coming over. He puts his phone back down on the table, face up.

“It doesn’t sound like you’re relaxing.” She takes a second to think. “Wait a minute, did you stay up all night again?” She questions, demanding an answer. 

“I…...did.” He admits his guilt, but doesn’t regret it.

“Arthur! I thought that we told you to not do that!” She said, being disappointed in him. 

“I know, but I just can’t help it. It’s like an addiction that I can’t control.” Arthur explains. He knows that Vivi hates it when Arthur damages his own health, just like Mystery. 

“You know what we are? Rehab.” She said with an unsatisfied tone. “Maybe Mystery can give you a long talk about what happens when you stay up late, his edition.” 

“So you’re taking his side now?” He leans back and crosses his arms. 

“He’s my dog, Arthur. Our guardian.” She restates what he is. “Why do you even hate him?”

“I don’t hate him, I just think that he’s being a bit over controlling on what I do.” He said in his own words. What he said is a bit true, Mystery has been watching over him like a hawk. It kinda scared Arthur because he’s the one who ripped his arm off because of a possession. 

“Look, you’re lucky that he’s not here with us and that we’re stuck in traffic. But once we get there, you are going straight to bed, mister!” She acts like a mom to Arthur. 

“Alright, alright. The door is unlocked so you can come inside when you get here.” He tells them before Arthur hanged up on them. With a groan, he puts his hands on his face. “Why can’t they just leave me alone?” Arthur lazily complains to himself. 

Everything was silent for a few seconds until, “Because they care about you.” A male voice, not too deep, said. He froze in place, putting his arms down onto his lap. Arthur didn’t recognize the voice as either Mystery’s or Lance’s, so now he thinks there’s an intruder behind him, ready to do whatever this guy wants. The chair spins slowly around, making the terrified mechanic prepared for what is about to come. Instead, there was no one. He stood up from his chair and looked around the room to see if anyone was hiding. 

“Hello?” He calls out. “Is anyone there?” No one answered. “If you want to rob me, then go ahead. I can’t fight.” He thought that this person might have gone up the stairs as he spun around. 

He takes one foot up a step, making a creaking sound. “You sure know how to give up that easily.” The voice rang out again, making Arthur frozen again. To his right was Galahad’s hamster cage right next to the stairs. Inside was the tiny little hamster that he had taken care of for over a year. The hamster’s expression looked a bit shy. 

Arthur had to crouch down to be face to face with the little guy. “Galahad?” He asks, hoping that it wasn’t him who had just spoken right next to him. 

“I guess I should've revealed myself when Mystery did.” This made Arthur take a few steps back, his heart racing. 

“What….” He became speechless, out of words. He must have been halucing or something because he knew that his hamster can’t talk, but then there’s Mystery who could speak as a dog and a giant fox. Maybe Vivi was right about him getting sleep. “You can talk?” He then starts to question the so-called mindless hamster. 

“Yes.” Galahad said, turning his head to the side. “But I’m more than just a talking hamster.” 

“W-what do y-you mean?” He stutters. 

This hamster took a deep breath like what a human does when they are nervous. “Just take me out of this cage and I’ll show you.” Did Arthur really want to do this? If he needs an answer to why this was happening, then he needs to do what Galahad tells him to do. He opens the cage from the top and gets the hamster out. “Now, place me on the floor.” Galahad requests. He carefully puts him on the floor like he says. “And finally, take a couple steps back.” Now Arthur was confused as ever, was he going to rush to him with super speed or something? So he takes a couple steps back until something shocking has happened. Galahad was transforming.

He grew bigger with his front limbs that turned into legs and paws, his face had a long snout like a vulpine’s with sharp teeth and eyes that were still brown but his pupils were small and pointy. Tails sprung behind him, only five of them, with light brown at the tips. His brown fur got thicker and probably soft. Even his electronic wheels got bigger with his size like how Mystery’s collar did. His height was a lot taller than Arthur’s, maybe Lewis’s, but not as tall as Mystery. Galahad huffs, looking straight at Arthur whose jaw was dropped and his arms up in defense, although he just said he couldn’t fight. Arthur couldn’t believe it, his own pet hamster was a kitsune just like Mystery. “You’re…..a kitsune?” He spoke in awe. 

“It’s hard to believe, but yes.” He said with a small smile. His front legs were on the ground while trying to stabilize his back wheels. “Just relax for a moment and I’ll tell you everything.” 

“Okay….” He fainted, falling on the ground face first. 

“Oh.” Galahad flinched when that happened right before he picked him with his teeth and put him on the swivel chair. “I should’ve seen that coming.” So now he has to wait until Arthur wakes up so he could explain everything that the poor guy just witnessed.  
______________________________________________________________________________

His head hurts really badly, as if someone hitted him with a brick to the face. “God…..” He groans, slowly waking up. His vision went blurry for a second before he realized that he was face to face with the brown kitsune who was close to his face. “No!” He rapidly pushes his chair all the way back, smacking into the wall. 

“Take it easy Arthur, I wasn’t trying to scare you.” Galahad said, easing Arthur. 

He breathes fast, pulling himself into the wall. “Yeah, right after I fainted because my own hamster just turned into a freaking giant kitsune!” He panics. 

“Like I said, I can explain everything.” He gets a little closer to him, making Arthur even more scared. The wheels were being a bit jitterish since he only used those when he walked. “I promise I won’t bite, not like Mystery.” His tone got a bit darker when he mentioned Mystery. 

“Look, just stay back and tell me everything!” Arthur begs. 

“I will. Instead of sitting down, he lies on the ground to make sure his wheels won’t act up on their conversation. “From what you saw before, I understand why to panic. But I thought you’ll handle it much better now that you know kitsunes exist.” 

Arthur tried to speak but his brain kept making him stutter. “I guess not.” He overreacts. “Maybe I’m just afraid of kitsunes.” 

“You looked fine when you were having conversations with Mystery. I wonder if it’s him you’re afraid of.” He couldn’t tell if Galahad was being serious or joking around.

“I still need an explanation for all of this.” Arthur was losing his patience. 

“Right. As you may know, I lived for hundreds of years, seven hundred. I guess at the same time as Mystery.” He sighs. “I really need to stop talking about that mutt after what he did to me.

To Arthur, Galahad sounded so hating to Mystery, but he could understand why. “I know that Mystery was making fun of you for being a hamster and all, but I’m not sure-”

“It’s more than just him teasing me and such.” Galahad interrupts. “I...really don't want to talk about it right now. But moving on, I lived “some” of my life traveling around without my back legs.” Arthur looks at the robotic wheels that he had built for him when he cutted his back legs. 

He stopped thinking, moving, speaking. His heart didn’t beat as his breathing was small. “Galahad, I’m so sorry.” He apologizes quickly, regretting what he had done to Galahad when they first met. “I-I didn’t-”

“Arthur, it’s okay.” Galahad tried to calm him down, standing back up.

“No, I just cutted off your back legs!” He regrets more and more. “I should’ve done something else!” 

“Don’t do this!” Galahad was now close to him, his paws on the human’s thighs. “You are not going to have another mental breakdown like you always do.” He sounded almost like Mystery when he’s trying to help Arthur. The kitsune sighs. “It’s okay. I wanted you to cut my legs and replace them with something more…..moveable.” He paused midway as he looked down at his machine. He then looks at Arthur’s mechanical arm that was able to move around and grab things. “Actually, can I have something other than wheels? I don’t think that I’m going to be able to control this in this form.” 

He takes a minute to think properly before speaking. “Sure, I can make some robotic legs for you, although it may take some time to build.”

“That will be great. I know that you are working hard but-”

“I know I’m working hard. I stayed up all night just to work.” Arthur interrupts. As Galahad got off of Arthur’s thighs, he stood up and walked back to his desk, getting some paper and a pencil. “I’m going to try and brainstorm on what your new legs might look like. Good thing that I made my own mechanical arm so I know what needs to be made properly.” But as soon as he got to work, a voice that he now recognizes shouts from upstairs. 

“Arthur!?” He froze in place as Galahad slowly growls. It was Mystery. But why did he sound so scared and worried? Did Vivi get a hold of him while they were in traffic?

He turns towards the kitsune who was glaring at the stairs. “Galahad, you need to get back to being a hamster.” 

Galahad stood there, slowly turning his head to Arthur before saying, “I have other plans.” He showed anger and hatred for Arthur, not to him but towards Mystery still.

“What does that mean?” Arthur asks, concerned about what his own pet is about to do next.

“Arthur!?” The white furred kitsune runs down the stairs in a panic. He stops when he makes it all the way down, in awe when he sees this other kitsune near Arthur. “Who are you?”

“Someone who wants revenge mutt.” Galahad spat at him. “Right after what you did to me.” He growls at the same time Mystery does. 

“Revenge?” Arthur starts to get more worried about this. “I don-”

“Arthur, get away from him now.” Mystery tells him, protecting his safety. He crouches low as he shows teeth and tails to the brown kitsune. 

“He’s mine, not yours!” Galahad shouts infuriated at Mystery. “Now that I’m strong enough to take you on.” 

“I’ll rip off all of your tails and leave you to die after this.” The last thing Mystery said before lunging to Galahad but only after Arthur gets between them, holding his arms out.

“Stop! Stop!” He screams to get the two to stay back. Mystery stopped, looming over Arthur who tried to push him back. “Galahad, what is your problem!?” He shouts at him. 

Mystery went wide eyed when he said Galahad’s name, the hamster he once played with for a year. “Galahad?” He quietly asks. “Is that you?” He looks down to see the robotic wheels only the hamster had. How could he have missed this? 

“Yeah it’s me.” Galahad answers in disgust. “Arthur, move out of the way so I can rip his limbs apart!” He gets aggressive. Arthur remembered that he growled at Mystery before when he was a hamster, but this was out of control.

“We are not going to fight, I just want to know why you're trying to kill each other.” Arthur asks, demanding another answer. 

“Grandma Yukino told me you were in danger, Arthur. And it seems like she was right.” Mystery says, glaring viciously at Galahad. 

“How stupid are you to think that I would harm someone who’s taken care of me for a whole year? He insults Mystery. “I don’t even know who Grandma Yukino is, but she’s wrong. Arthur is safe and sound in my paws.”

“I don’t trust you.” Mystery hisses before calming himself down. “I can’t believe you were a kitsune the whole time.”

“Bold of you to assume that you don’t remember me very well centuries ago.” He carefully gets closer to Mystery, his teeth showing. “That is if you remembered The Kitsune and Human War.”

Before Mystery could speak, someone else entered the house. “Arthur?” It was Vivi’s voice. They all turned to the stairs as Arthur face palms himself.

“Crap.” Arthur said, trying not to panic. “Now it’s best time to change back into a hamster Galahad.” He begs to Galahad.

“I’m not finished.” His voice becomes deep with a silent growl. “He needs to hear about what I have to say.” 

“Then spit it out.” Mystery said, not wanting him to waste anytime.

It was too late, Vivi and Lewis came down the stairs. Both were in shock when they saw the second kitsune in the room. “Hello there.” Galahad said, greeting the two.

“Who’s this?” Vivi asks Mystery and Arthur who both looked embarrassed.

“Take a look at his bottom legs and guess.” Arthur says, crossing his arms.

Lewis and Vivi were stunned when they saw the robotic wheels that only one person has, Galahad. “Galahad, is that really you?” Lewis asks, surprised to see the once called hamster now a kitsune. 

“It seems like you’re handling this more than Arthur did.” He starts to tease Arthur.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He refuses, going back to his chair and sitting down. “All I did was answer a phone call and this happens.” Arthur felt crazy, like he should go on a rampage or something. But the last time he did that, he destroyed the whole basement and cried. 

“I thought it would be the best time to tell you the truth.” Galahad drags himself to Arthur, only to be blocked by Mystery. 

“You still need to talk about your hatred towards me. Because if this is about the teasing I did to you, then I must have traumatized you real good.” Mystery chuckles a little bit before Galahad snarls right in front of his face. 

“You’re crossing the line mutt!” It startled Mystery, but not scaring him. Vivi and Lewis wanted to help, but knowing that they could make things worse. “Like I said, I knew you from that war. The Human and Kitsune war.” 

“Wait a minute.” Vivi spoke up. “I thought that war was just a myth.”

Galahad turns his head towards Vivi. “That’s what people believed years ago, but it was real. A real pain for me back then.” He turns back to Mystery, glaring. “Do you remember it well Mystery? How you left me to die?”

“I remember the war, but not you.” Mystery denies that ever happening. 

“Liar. You stared at me in my final moments. Right when that human broke my lumbar with his knife. Cutted through it like skinning a dead animal.” Galahad walks around Mystery and towards Arthur, putting a paw on his leg. “If it wasn’t for you, I would have been suffering for another year like that.” He tells Arthur as he licks his face. 

“How did you survive?” Lewis asks. 

“First I killed the guy before he could cut anything else. Then spend the rest of centuries as different animals. Birds, snakes, foxes, fishes.”

“Whoa, I didn’t know kitsunes could change into more than one animals.” Vivi sounded amazed by that.

“Yeah, its a power that we love.” Mystery smiles at her. “Although being a dog is better than the other things.” 

“Because chasing a hamster is the best thing a so-called loyal pet can do.” Galahad mocks him, taking his paw off of Arthur and turning to Mystery. 

“Are you calling me unless?” Mystery felt offended by the brown kitsune’s response. “Because if so, I’ll rip your guts out.” He growls furiously. 

“It’s cute that you like to treat others harshly your whole life.” He continues to mock. “How you put them in danger because of your mistakes.

Vivi quickly got in front of Mystery before he could attack him, pushing him back. “Galahad, shut up.” She tells him as he steps away. “If you two are going to keep fighting, we are not going to get anywhere.” 

“What’s going on?” Jax asked as he got out of Lewis’s locket, seeing chaos erupt. They all stared in silence while Jax looked at Lewis. “Am I interrupting something?” He confusedly asks.

“No, you’re not. We almost had a kitsune fight in this basement.” Lewis says, easing Jax.

“Oh, may I help out with this?” He wanted to assist.

“We’re fine. You can stay out here.” He pats the deadbeats head.

“Can I leave now?” Arthur asks, feeling very annoyed.

“Not until I want to ask about those energy cans on your desk.” Vivi said, pointing to his desk which was messy. Arthur turns to the desk and groans. Now their attention was on Arthur. “Is your heart beating faster than before?” 

“I really can’t tell, it’s been like that ever since.” He said, uncertain. “Plus, I promised Galahad that I would give him robotic legs.” 

“You can do that later if your health is deteriorating.” Mystery tells him before staring at Galahad in anger. 

“But I-” Arthur tried to speak until Mystery interrupted him.

“Arthur, do you want us to drag you to bed?” He warns him, feeling like he should start giving him a new routine.

“Hey, I do that part now, not you.” Galahad snaps at Mystery.

“Oh really? How are you going to take him upstairs with those wheels?” Mystery judges him as Galahad looks down to see that it was indeed impossible to get up the stairs with those. 

“I hate you so much mutt.” He said, lying on the ground with a huff. “Arthur, I need you to know that I won’t mean any harm to you.” Galahad promises to him.

“I know you won’t. I trust you.” Arthur says as he gets up from the chair and leans down next to him to pet his head. “Now can you turn back into a hamster?”

“Right.” Galahad shrinks himself back to his hamster form, letting Arthur carry him up. “If you need help with those mechanical legs, I’ll do anything.” 

“I’ll be fine.” He said before going upstairs with the others. 

“Just don’t over do it.” Vivi tells him as if she was his mom. “I don’t want you to pass out again.”

“He did it just an hour ago before you guys got here.” Galahad said, giggling a bit.

“Really?” Arthur wasn’t happy that his own hamster had to tell everyone that. 

“Sorry, I just can’t help it now that you guys know that I can talk.” The gang makes it in Arthur’s room. Arthur gives Vivi Galahad and puts his mechanical arm on the charger before he gets in bed.

“If I wake up, will you guys be gone?” Arthur asks.

“It depends on how long you sleep.” Vivi said, crossing her arms. 

“Then I hope I’ll be in a coma.” He sarcastically says. 

“I hope not.” Lewis said as Vivi and Galahad left. “Just get some sleep okay?” 

“I will.” He turned to the side as Lewis and Mystery looked at each other before leaving the room and closing the door. Arthur hopes that this is just all a dream and that he wakes up back at his desk from passing out on energy drinks. But if not, did his life become one crazy adventure that he can’t control?


	8. New Enemies with Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to take a peek at the new villains of the story.

“So, what brings you here, miss?” A taxi man asks his passenger who sits in the back of his cab. She’s a japanese woman wearing a black jacket and blue tight jeans, the same one who broke into Hoshi’s house back in Japan. An hour ago, she just traveled from her hometown to the United States to continue her search for the Yukino’s. She wasn’t wearing her fox mask this time so her face was exposed. She had a pretty and young face with dark brown eyes and smooth skin. Her black hair, which was in a long braid that went down to her back, was clean. Right next to her was a duffle bag that looked packed and full. Her mask and blade must be inside the bag, how it got through security is a mystery no one can solve. 

“I’m just traveling around the country. Hopefully find some people.” She mumbles the last part as she keeps thinking about that family, escapically their daughter. “How far is the hotel?”

“Oh not too far, we’ll get there in minutes.” He then turns on the radio, playing rock music. “I hope you don’t mind the music.”

“That’s fine. I brought my own music.” The woman got out her cell phone with earbuds and started to play her music, it was Japanese music that she loves very much. It had always soothes her to the point where she would meditate to calm her down when her anger starts to lose control. 

“I never got your name, miss” He said to her, trying to call out. He looks in the rearview mirror to see her closing her eyes with her hands on her lap. So he decided to let her have the peace she’s getting right now. 

In her mind, she gets the feeling of a victory that could be once in a lifetime. She and her family of ancestors have been waiting for this moment in centuries. But what was the reason? No one but her knows why she’s doing this, and it’s not going to be pretty. She then takes off her ear buds, putting them and her phone back in the duffel bag. “So, what is this country like?” She asks, curious. 

“Oh, America is a big place, not that you’ll get lost or anything, but more like having years of exploring and learning the country and how it was made.” The cab driver took a left which led her to the hotel that was on the right side of the road. “We are at the hotel, miss.” 

“Good.” She said, getting prepared to pay the man once he pulls up to the front. 

He stops in front of the hotel, turning his back to the young lady. “We’re here. That’ll be thirty dollars.”

She goes into her wallet and pulls out japanese dollars. “Here you go.” She handed it to him who looked a bit confused. “Sorry, I don’t have dollars from here.”

“I’ll accept it.” He said, letting the woman out of the car with her bag. Before she left, the man rolled down the passenger side window. “I still didn’t get your name.” 

She goes into the front passenger side window and leaned in. “Call me the Snow Fox as a nickname.” 

“I see. Anyway, have a good day Snow Fox.” He rolls up the window and drives off as she goes into the building. In the lobby, she waits in line to check in her room. Once it was her turn, she told the employee the same thing to the cab driver about the money. Of course, they did accept it from a policy they had adapted months ago and let her stay in room 413. Before she went to her room, she looked to her right and saw a newspaper stand that showed last week’s report. But something caught her eye, the word Yukino was in that newspaper. She quickly storms over to there and picks up one of them. She opens it aggressively and finds out that it was an ad for a paranormal investigation. What made her happy the most was that the name, Vivi Yukino, was on that name along with the phone number and the location of where she was. Sunnytown, Texas was the place. 

“So, I finally found you. Now, I think it’s time to end this once and for all.” She folds up the newspaper and takes it with her to the hotel room.   
______________________________________________________________________________

He was in a rush to talk to him. A white scientist who wore a white lab coat, with a name tag that said Arron Richards and SynthCorp as the company, and a blue shirt with black pants was making his way towards the office. In his right hand was the same black suitcase with the name “classified’ on it. Arron opens the door, interrupts and says, “They have it sir.” He said to a man wearing a military outfit that suited for commanders. He was a man in his late forties with a clean shaved face and green dark eyes. His suit was green with badges on the side and a cap that was short and flat with a brim. He also looked buff and tall enough to fight any man in a match. “Those men you sent got the project.”

The man turned around to look at Arron and the black suitcase. “Put it on the table.” He said with no emotion. Arron carefully places it on a brown polished table and steps back. The man then opens the suitcase, he shows a bit of unamusement when he sees the green arm in the case. He then closes the suitcase and looks at Arron. The commander sighs before asking, “What’s the damage?” 

“Well, since the arm, which it was injected in, is not attached to the host anymore, we can’t control him anymore.” Aaron starts to sweat, feeling a bit nervous. “Commander Kyle, I know that you’re upset but-”

“I’m not upset, just…...disappointed.” Reagan Kyle is the commander and leader of the company called SynthCorp, a government based business that works with microelectronics inside the human body for better health results. Of course he had other plans, knowing that they could control the human brain and their movements. “What about the host? What can we do with him?”

“Unfortunately, the only thing we can do with him is headaches, which there’s a five percent chance that he could die from those if we put it at maximum.” He explains. “We still don’t know what tore his arm and how he was still alive.” 

“I see.” He adjusted his collar of his threaded military suit and put his hands behind his back. “Check with the others and see if we could reconnect his brain. Maybe find a way to get his other body movements in our control.” 

“Yes sir.” So Arron Richards walks out of the office to talk to the other scientists. Commander Kyle wasn’t supposed to do this, but he needed too. It was an experiment he’s been working on for the past few years with the company. Something to do with controlling the human body, making them do things without their consent. 

But that was Arthur’s arm they had captured. They knew it could move around and such, but it had a mind of its own. So was it a demon or not? That’s a question only SynthCorp knows, where secrets lived deep inside the grave.


	9. Regretting the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur realizes his mistakes from the past and has a breakdown.

Back in Arthur’s room, he woke up to what sounded like a party outside of the room. At first, he thought that he was probably dreaming and that it could turn out to be a nightmare, or they broke his promise by not leaving his house by the time he was asleep. He didn’t care for a moment to get his mechanical arm, just opens the door, walks down the hall, and finds everyone, now Lance, in their living room. They were just chatting away like it was some sort of celebration going on. He leans on the wall with his side where his left arm should have been, watching them with smiles on their faces and laughing. Of course they didn’t hear him come in, so Arthur said, “I thought you guys would be gone by the time I was asleep.” He got everyone turning to him, some were clearing their throats while others scoffed like Vivi and Lance. 

“We were going to leave, but I thought that we needed to make sure that you were sleeping.” Vivi spoke up, putting all of it on her.

“I was until your yaping woke me up.” He jokes. Vivi now knows that Arthur is almost back to his old self again. He then looks at his uncle and then back at Galahad who was in his kitsune form. “Now you know too?” He asks Lance who puts down his cup of coffee.

“Yep, transformed right in front of me. This time, I didn’t bring out my shotgun.” Lance chuckles as he reminded Vivi and Mystery about a near death experience they almost had. “Hungry?”

“I’ll pass, I got work to do.” At that time, both kitsunes and the ghost had stood up and blocked the basement. 

“Nope, not this time.” Mystery stated, getting in front of Arthur. 

“I got to upgrade Galahad’s legs soon.” Arthur argues. That’s when he decided to grab his mechanical arm in his room. Mystery followed him behind, making sure that Arthur is not going near those basement stairs. “You know Galahad is going to be really disappointed if I don’t do this soon.” He said, grabbing his arm from the charger and attaching it to his left side. 

“Oh me and Galahad talked about it, still fighting, but we both know that your health is way more important than some robotic legs.” He nudges Arthur to move to the living room and sits down on Galahad’s side who wraps his tails around him and nuzzles him. “So enjoy not going anywhere for the rest of the day.” 

Arthur groans. “Great.” He looks back at Galahad. “And you’re okay with this?”

“Even if I do want better legs, Mystery is right. You’re not getting any better and I have to make sure that you get proper rest and hydration.” Now Galahad was trying to parent him? It’s like everyone in the room was going mother mode except Lance who just sits there and lets it all happen. “Now, that was only three hours of rest. Are you sure you’re not hungry?”

“Look guys, I'm fine.” They all glared at him, even Jax and he’s a passive person. “What?” 

“Arthur, you've been doing this for over a year. This needs to stop.” Lewis said, trying to get him to get into a better health system. “You already found me and there’s absolutely no reason why you should do this besides working.” 

“I want to work. I have to get up, start my day, and go straight to work. I think I’m ready to even go back to the workshop.” Arthur tried to stand up, but Galahad’s tails were really strong to pin him down. 

“Kid, you can’t even get a goodnight rest. You won’t think right when you go fixing cars.” Lance said, a bit frustrated with Arthur’s dangerous life. “Do you remember the days before you were like this? How you would always like to play around in the shop and pretend that you are the king of the castle because of our last name.” 

That made Arthur smile a bit, remembering all about it. “That was silly of me to do that.” 

“I think it was good for you to have fun. It’s that I just missed you when you were like that and now you’re this guy who can’t even help himself.” Lance knew the changes Arthur was going through, the tragedies that shattered his soul. “But there is still hope that we can recover who you once were.” 

“I don’t know, I’ve changed over the months. The whole year.” He sinks more into Galahad’s side, thinking it all through. “Can I just work for an hour?” Again, they all glare at him as a no. “Man you guys are difficult to get through.” 

“We could say the same for you.” Vivi said, raising an eyebrow at him. “Lance is right, you haven’t been the same since last year.” 

“Last year changed everything. It took all of our happiness away.” Arthur said, very dark and depressing. “I’m not sure if it’ll fix all of us.”

“This isn’t about us, this is you we are talking about.” Mystery says, being selfless. “Can you at least think of the good times you had?”

What good times did he have? All of them were probably erased from his memory besides the bad ones. But he had to think, for everyone in the room so he wouldn’t let them down. “Well…..there was this time where we went to this creepy old building and Lewis scared the crap out of me when he popped out of the closet.”

“I remembered that one, I was alive back then and wanted to prank you. Those were good times.” Lewis said as he and Arthur laughed, making the others smile. 

“What about when you thought that you could fly when you made those ridiculous wings out of cardboard?” Lance asks him, remembering how Arthur almost broke a bone by jumping off the roof with those degradable wings. 

“I thought I could invent flying with wings. No one was talking of it so I decided to take that chance.” Arthur explains why he did it, making everyone look at him in dissatisfaction. “Maybe I should have gone for a better material than cardboard.” 

“At least you’re still alive, that’s what I matter the most.” Lance got up to get himself more coffee. 

“Right, and the craziest thing I’ve done is talking to a hamster who’s actually a kit…..” He pauses his sentence, not planning to finish it. Arthur’s body trembles in fear once his own words remind him of something that he never thought would matter to him. Everyone looked at him concernedly except for Galahad, who tried to calm him down. “Oh god…” He stood up quickly, putting his hands on his ears as he started to shake his head. “What have I done?”

“Arthur, I can explain.” Galahad says, standing up to get Arthur to stay calm. 

“How much did you hear!?” He shouts in betrayal. Everyone had to get closer incase Arthur was going to go crazy again. 

“All of it, even your parents.” Those words really hurted them both, even Lance since he knows what he meant. Arthur had tears running down his face before storming off to his bedroom, slamming the door and locking it. 

Lance sighs, putting his cup down as he goes into the hall to check on Arthur. “What was all that about?” Mystery asks him, now wanting to know why this was upsetting the boy so much.

“It’s personal.” He didn’t want to answer him, fearing that it would be worse. 

Mystery wasn’t going to take that as an answer, but from how Galahad looked guilty of it. “Please tell me, I can help.” He assists. 

“If I tell you, he might hate all of us for it.” Galahad keeps saying, trying to get all of them out of this.

Outside of the door, Lance knocks. “Arthur, are you okay?” 

“God no! I messed up badly!” He was pacing around the room, crying his tears out. “Why did I tell him everything!? Now he knows what happened to them!” He screams in sadness and frustration. Last year when Arthur had gone to search for Lewis and adopted Galahad in the first few weeks, he thought that he could tell a hamster all of his stories that he experienced when he was a kid. Told him the details of his parents’ murder and still felt bad about it. He did that because he didn’t know that a hamster would understand what he’s saying. Unfortunately, now he knows.

“Arthur please, I need you to stay with me.” Lance twists the knob multiple times, trying to open it. “Don’t you think it’s time you told the others the truth?” 

He stops pacing, staring at the ground. It’s been years since he’s been hiding the truth about his parents. What really happened to them besides a divorce. “I don’t know, they’re already on to me for staying up late.” Arthur worries.

“Hey, the last thing everyone wants from you is lying. That’s where they draw the line.” Lance knows this because of the situation from the night where Mystery confronted Lewis about the memories. How he was livid as he describes Vivi’s memory loss and how it affected her. It really scared Lance and VIvi back there. “If you’re not going to tell them about your parents, then me and Galahad will.”

“What truth?” Vivi asks, feeling confused. “I thought that your parents got divorce.” She said to Arthur. 

“That was just a cover up he used. Are you going to tell them?” Lance asks him, ready for Arthur to spill the beans. 

He didn’t want to speak, but Lance and Galahad could speak for him, but in their own words. Lewis and Mystery went up to the door, waiting for Arthur to answer. “Arthur, just tell us.” Mystery says, begging for him to say something.

“The truth is…...my parents are dead.” He sat on the floor, in front of the locked door. Vivi, Lewis, and Mystery had looked at each other, speechless and eye-wided to what he was saying about his parents being dead. “Murdered mostly.”

“Arthur…..that’s terrible.” Vivi sympathizes, feeling bad for him. “Why did you lie about it?” 

“It’s a long story but do you remember that news story on the radio during our drive at night? The one about the couple being murdered in Nebraska?” He asks, seeing if Vivi or Mystery remembers anything about it.

“Yeah…..wait that was your parents!?” She started to see a clearer picture. It also made sense because it talked about the uncle, meaning that Lance was the one who was there at the scene. “Oh god, now I know why you wanted me to change it!”

“Yeah. After what happened, I was never the same. It traumatized me ever since and my parents risked their lives to save mine.” He started to cry again, wiping the tears off. “I wanted to go back to save them, but I already heard the gunshots.” He stopped talking and kept weeping. They dropped their heads down, some of them crossing their arms. 

“I’m really sorry to hear that Arthur.” Mystery whines, not knowing the truth. He remembered what Lance had said to him on the night after Shiromori’s death, that he was like a father to Arthur. If he only knew the real fate of his parents. “We’ll leave now if that’s what you want.” 

He didn’t say anything besides crying. He felt hurt, betrayed, stupid. It’s like the smallest things that he doesn’t worry about are the ones that attack him. Lewis wanted to see Arthur, he’s a foster who’s never met his parents so he thought that he could talk to him. He goes through the door and sees Arthur on the floor, his knees up to his face as it is covered. “Arthur, do you want to talk about it?” 

Arthur looks up at him, seeing Lewis in his ghost form. “I’m not sure.” He sniffles, standing up on his feet again. “It’s so hard to tell the story again. That’s why I had to lie, because it just makes me feel bad that I never got the chance to see them again.” Lewis went in for a hug, comforting the crying eighteen year old boy.

“I know it’s hard for you, I understand. I never got to see my parents when I was born, a foster kid. He unlocks the door and sits on the bed with him. “But hearing your parents’ death is much worse than what I’ve been through.” He looked at his golden locket, seeing it beat slowly from sadness. “At least you still have us. People who want to take care of you and love you.” 

“Thanks.” He said, smiling a little before sighing disappointedly. “I’m sorry for lying about my parents. Maybe telling the truth should’ve been a better choice.”

“It always is. Now that we know, how about we comfort you? Mystery and Galahad are probably going to snuggle you up really good.” It made Arthur chuckle a little. 

“Yeah, I’ll let them do what they can.” He said, standing up.

“If I may….” Jax said to Arthur. “Is there any way that deadbeats could be good with comforting humans?” 

“We can always try.” He then opens the door, unprepared when Vivi, Mystery, and Galahad hugged him. 

“I’m really sorry for hiding that away from you.” He says to Vivi and Mystery who then takes him to the living room again. “I promise to be honest next time.”

“It’s alright.” Vivi forgives him. “You just need some love, that’s all.” Mystery got him on his side as the two laid down again. Galahad went over to lick the boy’s forehead, comforting him as he too lay down on the human’s legs. Both of their tails covered him. Jax too went into the tails to help with comforting Arthur. 

“Want to join in?” Mystery asks the others. Lance shook his head and went into the kitchen to get some more coffee. Lewis and Vivi on the other hand loved too and under the tails and close to Arthur. “Sleep tight guys because we are going to have a great time the next day.” 

“Yeah, I promised Laurel to come with me for paranormal investigations.” Vivi said, still keeping her promise. 

“Who’s Laurel?” Arthur asks.

“A friend of mine from high school. You should meet her sometime.” She then looked at him, giving a smirk.

“What’s with the smirk?” Arthur questions.

“Not sure, but I just have a feeling.” Vivi didn’t know what but seeing them knowing each other for the first time made sparks in her heart of joy. “Anyway, I think you should rest.”

“Well, I still have to make Galahad some legs.” Arthur reminds them.

“Go to sleep Arthur.” They all said together, annoyed with his workaholic issues. Arthur rolls his eyes and does what they say since he’s got no choice. It only took him thirty minutes to fall right asleep again because of how comfy Mystery and Galahad’s fur was. Lewis and Vivi had slept next to each other as Jax went back inside the locket. Mystery and Galahad looked at each other, staring in either happiness or anger. 

“So, what were you saying about me being a tiny weakling?” Galahad whispers to him, smirking a bit as remembers what Mystery said about him.

“Just shut up and go to sleep.” Mystery said in annoyance as he rests his head while Galahad scoffs. Something about two kitsunes hating each other isn’t going to be the main priority when their goal is to help their pups, or as Mystery would call them. With one as an immortal ghost, another one as a powerful samurai, and the last one as a traumatic mechanic with his blood, his worries that his life isn;t going to be the ones he focuses on.


	10. Discussing the Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur goes over to the Yukino's home to speak to Grandma Yukino about what she had seen, only after to have two kitsunes only threatening each other.

A lot had happened in the next two days with the gang. Arthur had rebalanced his health back with his friends and family. He stopped drinking energy cans and got good sleep because of how they helped him get back to his old self again. Along with that, he also built new robotic legs for Galahad which he loved very much. It was strong, light, clean, and unbreakable. The kitsune could even stand on his hind legs, making him a lot more taller than Mystery when he does too. A new way to tease Mystery just in case he gets too cocky. Another thing about Galahad was that he wanted to change to something else besides a hamster. He kinda likes being a little bigger and yet fluffy so his next bet was going to be a Tanuki. A Tanuki that was a small and adorable japanese raccoon dog with dark and light brown fur. Arthur did like Galahad as a hamster, but knew that a fluffy raccoon dog is probably a bit better. Who knows?

As for the others, they didn’t change a bit except having fun with him. Vivi was out with her friend Laurel and Lewis was back at the restaurant with his family working. But there was something that Arthur still worried about. Mystery said that he was in danger because Grandma Yukino, a wise woman that he had met face to face, sensed it. So he, Lance, and Galahad were at the Yukino’s porch, hoping to talk to her to see what he was in danger of. How did they get there? Luckily Lance and Arthur had fixed the van right up after it wrecked into the mechanical shop just a few weeks ago. It was lucky to land there in the first place. “Are you sure about this?” Lance asks, feeling a bit cautious.

“I just want to know what she meant. If I’m really in danger, then what is it?” Arthur had been wondering about it lately ever since Mystery spoke about it. He had some thoughts that Galahad was the danger, but he could be wrong. “Will it put you guys in danger too?”

“Arthur, you need to stop worrying. Everything’s going to be fine.” Galahad whispers so no one inside the house could hear him. “I just hope that mutt isn’t in there.”

“You still have hard feelings for Mystery?” Lance asks the small raccoon dog. “I thought you two would have made it up by now.”

“Never. As if I would be friends with that traitor. Not to forget that he set Arthur up with death.” Of course he would be explaining that Mystery gave Arthur kitsune blood just because he was possessed and then almost killed by his long nemesis Shiromori who drained most of his blood. “From now on, I’m not letting him touch a tail on this precious child.”

“I’m not a child.” Arthur disagrees, making Galahad snicker a bit.

“Yeah and calling you kid means that you're an adult.” Lance sarcastically says.

“I am an adult, I’m eighteen.” He was right on that part but Lance sighs.

“Yet you act childish.” The uncle told back right before the door opened, revealing Vivi’s mom.

“Oh, Arthur. Mr. Kingsmen. Welcome.” She greets with an unexpected reaction. “I didn’t hear you knock on the door.” 

“Well, we actually didn’t but planned to.” Arthur says, tilting his head in embarrassment. 

“I see. Vivi isn’t home right now, she’s out with her old friend from high school.” She told him, thinking that was the reason why they were here. 

“Laurel?” Arthur asks.

“Yeah, you know her too?” He still didn’t see her face to face, but Vivi was talking about her yesterday. He learned that she's a college student in New York to be a lawyer, which she’s doing great. 

“Umm Yeah, Vivi told me all about her.” Arthur explains, putting his hands in his pockets. “But, we are here because-”

“Oh Arthur.” Grandma Yukino called out from the stairs. “Glad you could make it.” Right behind her was Mystery in his dog form. This made Galahad less happy and more angry, wanting to growl. 

“Oh, I didn’t know they were here for you.” She says, a bit surprised that her husband’s mother would have visitors. 

“Yes, I wanted to speak to him in private.” Vivi had always said that Grandma Yukino was a grumpy person, but from what Arthur’s seeing, it looks like she’s having a positive mood today. He wonders why. “Come inside you guys.”

So they did, taking their shoes off as they walked up the stairs with her and Mystery. Up top, Galahad gives a stern look at Mystery as he does too. Grandma Yukino opens her door to her room and all of them get inside. She closes the door and turns on the light in the room, making it bright. “Sorry if we came here a bit earlier than you expected.” Arthur apologizes.

“Nonsense, I always knew you were going to come anyway. It’s good to see you too Mr. Kingsmen.” She says to Lance who smirks. “The last time we met was when Arthur was….ehh might put that to rest.” Grandma decides it was best to leave the Shiromori story behind now that she’s gone. “Now, I know how you must’ve felt when I said that you were in danger.” 

“I’m just a bit confused, that’s all.” Arthur really seemed calm about all of this which alerted Mystery. 

“Confused? I thought you would be scared by now.” Mystery spoke up, transforming into his kitsune form as Galahad did the same. “First of all…” He said as he looked at Galahad who glared at him. “What was that? What animal were you?” Now this was going to be a conversation between two kitsunes who are supposed to be very wise. “I mean, I know that being a hamster is the worst thing to be but man…”

“It’s called a Tanuki, you big oversize nitwit.” He insults him, spitting in hatred. “Next time, try to have more common sense to what we are dealing with right now.” 

“We are, Arthur is in danger and we need to find out what.” Mystery got a bit angry at him. “Sorry, continue.” 

“Right, I should be scared but after what had happened that night, I’m just going to let it happen.” Arthur says, making the two kitsunes and the uncle in the room worried. 

“I don’t think you understand what Miss Yukino is saying Arthur.” Lance said, trying to get him on the same page as all of them. “This could be worse than what had happened that night. Maybe you’ll actually die.”

“I know.” Arthur sighs and places his mechanic hand on his forehead.

“No you don’t. Because you’re acting very calm about this, which is great but also strange.” He was arguing with his own nephew. Lance then turns to Grandma who looked very unamused by the arguments everyone was making. “What exactly did you see?” He asks.

“I saw visions of him in anger.” They all turned to her in surprise. “Crying, screaming. But I see no physical pain...only emotional.” That got everyone, but Arthur, a bit scared. He still didn’t react good to the news. 

“Anger? Why anger?” Arthur was very curious about that. Although he had mental breakdowns, he was never a person to be very aggressive towards anyone.

“I’m not sure, but it concludes that something had happened in there that made you very mad.” She said right before sitting on the floor. “I know it’s not a good sign, but I wouldn’t worry. I can sense that the time is not now.” 

“Do you know when it will be?” Galahad asks, concerned for Arthur’s future. 

“I’m sorry, but no. My visions never tell me when and how. We just have to wait and see.” She stood up again and went to her bed. “I need to relax for a moment.” She then got out a huge pair of noise cancelling headphones. “Just don’t be really loud like starting a fight.” 

They all looked at each other and nodded before Grandma Yukino rested. “So, what should we talk about?” Arthur asks, looking at the three. 

“Let’s talk about how you are not caring about this one bit.” Lance said, not happy with him. “Is there something you aren’t telling us?”

“No, but I just feel like that it doesn’t really matter to me. I know it sounds hurtful, but what if it’s something stupid?” This was not the Arthur his own uncle knew. Why be calm over something that could change his life again? Even Mystery was starting to feel like he should go back to his over protecting days. 

“Ok, let’s keep you close before anything else happens.” Mystery suggests, going closer to him.

Galahad quickly got in front of the two, snarling at Mystery. “Don’t you dare touch him.” He threatens, probably might maul him if he does. 

“Easy Galahad, we don’t need to fight.” Mystery said, trying to calm down the angry kitsune. 

“Then stay away from Arthur, you’ve done enough to torture his soul.” He said in disgust before picking Arthur up and taking him over to a corner where he lays down with him and covers all of his tails over him. 

“I saved his life Galahad, many times.” He argues, trying to reason with him.

“Right after you put him in danger in the first place? I don’t think so.” He glares at him as Mystery sits down, looking a little frustrated.

“Look, I’m sorry after what happened when you lost your back legs. But you're still alive. Shouldn’t you be grateful for that?” Mystery still couldn’t remember the day that happened, thought he could understand why Galahad would be mad at him. He had made Shiromori from the start and created a disaster no one would survive in. If only he could find some way to make it up to Galahad. 

“The only thing I could be grateful for is that I have him to take care of.” Galahad says, not forgiving him. Arthur got out of his tails, spitting out any loose fur that was in his mouth.

“Can’t you two just make it up already? I don’t want anyone to fight. Not after what I did.” Arthur was trying to put the blame on himself, making Galahad really angry about that. 

“Arthur, if you say something like that again, I’ll have to treat you like a helpless pup.” It wasn’t supposed to be a threat, but more like a warning for self-loathing. 

Arthur was very annoyed by this and turned to uncle Lance who just stood there. “Uncle, can you help me out here?”

“Sorry, but I’m not getting myself involved in this until I see one drop of blood.” He said with a smirk. “But I don’t want these foxes to start tearing their limbs apart.” 

“I’ll agree.” Mystery says, turning back into a dog. “Just in case, I’ll leave and take a nap on my dog bed.” He then goes over to the door and looks at Lance. “Can you open this door for me?”

He did without saying a word to him. Mystery leaves the room, calming Galahad. The kitsune takes a deep breath before looking at Arthur. “Promise me that you’ll stay with me instead of him.”

“I just need some time to get things straight. My only priority is wanting to know what the future holds for all of us.” He said, leaning back onto Galahad’s side as he licks his head. Lance watches the two, wondering why this has to happen to his own nephew. He remembers when things were simple with Arthur when he thought that Arthur was crazy and that Lewis was gone. A few weeks later, he’s standing there with Arthur being licked by a kitsune who used to be Arthur’s pet hamster while Lewis was a ghost who’s with his family again. If he knew the truth from before, what could he have done to change the past?


	11. Laurel's First and Last Ghost Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vivi gets attacked, Mystery starts worrying, Arthur found love, and Laurel has no idea what is going on.

It was an afternoon drive down to their place where Vivi will get Laurel her first ghost hunting experience. Although she wanted to do this at night, Laurel was afraid to go out in the dark. Vivi was driving her 2005 brown Chevy, slowly driving in a dirt road in the middle of the creepy woods that had no leaves on it’s branches. “This is a bit scary, maybe this was a bad idea.” Laurel says, regretting doing this.

“Relax Laurel, we are just going to check out this house like she said on the phone.” A few hours ago, she got a call from a woman who said that the abandoned house in the middle of the woods was supposed to be haunted by ghosts, even though she didn’t give a name. “We’re just going to talk to this lady and see what she knows.” 

“If you say so.” The hispanic woman takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. Vivi looks at her and smiles gently, putting a hand on her. She really wanted to make this the best ghost hunting investigation for her best friend. “If we do find a ghost, what do we do with it?” She asks, being curious.

“Either capture it or leave it be. I’ll tell you more when we get there.” Vivi says as she finally sees the house. “Okay, I’ll show you the equipment.” She then parks the car right in front of the house and gets out. Laurel looks at the house nervously, thinking if there are any ghosts in there. “Come on.” Vivi tells her, grabbing her wrist and taking her near the house.

As they got closer, they didn’t find the woman who called them, but a strange motorcycle was there. “Huh, did she go inside?” Vivi asks, walking up to the porch. 

“Are you sure about this? What if it’s a trap?” Laurel worries more about their safety. Vivi thought about it, not even using her full common sense on all of this. If it was a trap, she could fight. She defeated a giant tree yokai so how bad could one human being be? The two women go inside the creaking house, seeing how dusty, broken, and old it was. There was broken furniture, a wall with a huge hole in the middle where they could see the kitchen, some stairs leading both up and down. “Vivi, I know that it’s a haunted house, but where’s our person?” She asks, being concerned. 

“Maybe she’s just looking around.” Vivi assures her right before calling out. “Hello? We’re here.” She says, but no one responds. “Huh, did she go outside?” She wonders before walking around the place carefully. 

Laurel didn’t want to explore the house, but something in her mind said to do it. So she walks around, the floor creaking beneath her. “I hope we get out of here soon before the police come.” 

“What cops are going to show up and arrest us?” Vivi asks, as if it was some sort of joke. “But hey, they could be our backup witnesses if there are really ghosts here.” She decided to head down into the basement, knowing that most ghost activity happens in there. “I’m going to the basement, want to join me?”

“Umm, I think I’ll stay here. Just in case the police actually come.” Vivi rolls her eyes and scoffs before walking down the creaking stairs. She should’ve been worried that it may break and could hurt her, but she’s brave. The basement was just like the first floor, dirty and broken. There were a bunch of wooden planks on the floor with holes in the ceiling. The concrete walls were covered with some sort of green mold, cracks, and water leaks. The room was also dark and she brought a flashlight with her to look around. “Hello? Anyone here?” She asks, trying to call out for any ghosts. 

It didn’t really scare her at all since she’s done this so many times before. “What’s the story behind this place?” Vivi asks herself walking to where a desk was. It was dark wood with scratch marks and chunks of wood missing. It had a draw underneath and, but it seemed to be jammed. Vivi does her best to get the drawer open by pulling it aggressively. It made a loud screech sound that flinched her back before opening it all the way. Inside was a picture of a young couple with a baby. There wasn’t any writing on the back but the baby itself looked familiar, as if she knew them from somewhere. Maybe they used to live here once. Vivi puts the picture in her pocket before walking away from the desk. 

All of the sudden, someone from the dark had tackled her. She lands hard on the floor, using the flashlight to look at the person who was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and a fox mask. In this person’s hand was a dagger made of steel. “Nice to meet you, Vivi Yukino.” She spoke, diving towards her to stab Vivi. 

She dodges the attack, scooting away before getting up on her feet. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re fighting the wrong woman.” She then attacks the woman in the fox mask, but she too was dodging her attacks. “Laurel!” She shouts, needing her help. 

“Your friend won’t be able to save you in time.” The attacker said, slashing her blade at her. It sliced a cut at her right arm, a huge gash. She winces and holds onto her bleeding wound, dropping the flashlight. “Some samurai you are.” 

Vivi lashed out, punching her in the chest as she fell backwards. Laurel came downstairs to see the fight going on. “Vivi!” She said in fear as she rushed in to help. “Your arm, it’s bleeding.” Laurel grabs onto her wrist seeing how bad it was. 

“I know but-watch out!” She alerts as the attacker gets up and lunges for Laurel. Vivi holds onto her wrist with the dagger and pushes away from Laurel. “Get off of her!” She screams in rage, pushing the attacker to the wall. With a thump, the planks above her fall down, trapping her. Vivi and Laurel sigh in relief. “Are you okay?” She asks Laurel who huffs quickly. 

“Yeah, we need to get out of here.” She really didn’t want to stay here any longer, grabbing her good wrist. 

“You can never hide from me Vivi, I know your every move.” The attacker said, still behind her mask. Vivi stood still, glaring at the woman who somehow knew her name. 

“How do you know my name?” Vivi asks, demanding an explanation. 

“Did you really think you came here for an investigation? After all, I did lure you here.” Vivi and Laurel couldn’t see it, but she was smirking under the mask, mocking them.

“You’re the one who called us!?” Vivi said, gathering all the puzzles together. “Who are you really!?”

“Let’s just say that my ancestors have been tracking your family for centuries. You and that horrible mutt of yours.” She spat at her in disgust and hatred. The woman does her best to get out of the debris, but doesn’t work. “When I get out of here, you, that kitsune, and your weak old grandmother will pay for what you’ve done.” 

“We need to go, now!” Laurel orders, tugging on Vivi’s hand. Vivi wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to go, but something in her head was telling her to take off the mask. Her wounded arm goes over, trying to get the mask. “Vivi, no!” She uses all of her strength to pull Vivi back, running up the stairs. 

The two got out of the house and ran towards their car. Laurel got on the driver’s side, putting it on reverse and slamming on the pedal. With a turn, she speeds out of the trail and on her way to the hospital to treat Vivi’s wound. “Where are we going?” Vivi asks her.

“To the hospital of course! You’re bleeding!” She yells, scared for her friend. 

“No, take me to my house.” Vivi didn’t sound very scared for her wound or what she witnessed. She thought of what she said about her and her family. Was there something that she didn't know? What about Grandma and Mystery, do they know? 

“What? No! You need to get that healed!” Laurel refuses to take her home.

“Laurel please, they could be in danger if I don’t tell them what happened.” She begs, not for her life but for her family’s.

Laurel took the time to think. This was her best friend from high school who she knew was smart and brave. If she says to go to her house, then she will. “Fine, but you better have a first aid kit in there.” 

“I do, just take me there please.” She said before the two were silent as Laurel changed her destination. This is not how Laurel had imagined what a ghost investigation was, unless this happened many times before. Vivi, in her mind, wanted answers and needed to know if this is worse than Shiromori. For now, she wraps her wound with her scarf, the blood soaking through it.  
______________________________________________________________________________

“We made it.” Laurel says, getting out of the car. Vivi gets out of the car too, still bleeding from the cut. The two girls rushed to the house, opening the door and rushing upstairs without her parents seeing her with the wound. 

“Hey girls, your back early.” Mrs. Yukino says, seeing them at the stairs.

“Umm yeah, it was just a prank some kids were playing.” Vivi quickly lies to her as Laurel makes it to the top. She finds a dog, Mystery, staring at her in terror. The door to the right was open and he went inside and shut it quickly. It was very strange to Laurel and she knew Mystery well. A dog who really loves treats and belly rubs. “We have to do something real quick.” Vivi says before getting to the top with her. “Come on, I need to speak to her.” She whispers before pacing to the door the dog just went in a few seconds ago. Vivi knocks and says, “Grandma?” 

The door opens, revealing Arthur instead of Grandma Yukino. “Vivi?” He asks, wondering why she’s home early.

“Arthur? What are you doing here? Where’s Grandma?” She asks, getting impatient. 

“She’s in here, resting.” He then looks down at her scarf which was covered in blood. “Is that blood?” Arthur was getting worried about her, grabbing her hand inside the room at Laurel follows from behind. In the room, Laurel looks around to find a young boy, an old woman, a middle aged man, and two dogs. 

“Vivi? What happened to your arm?” Lance said, checking out her wound which was now uncovered. “Holy crap, you’re bleeding!” He could see the huge gash, pushing up the long sleeve to see it clearly. 

“Shhh, I don’t want my parents to know.” She whispers, trying to get Lance to ease down. “I need to see her.” 

“First we need to bandage you up.” Arthur says, opening the door and looking right and left. “Where are the bandages?” 

“In the bathroom up here. Just in the cabinet.” Vivi told him as he fast walked to the bathroom to grab the first aid kit. Mystery whines, tugging on her sweater to get her attention. “I’m fine Mystery, it’s just a cut.” 

To him, that was no cut, more like a slice that a person could make on purpose. Was there something she’s hiding? Arthur comes back into the room with the first aid kit. “I got it.” He said, shutting the door behind him. Then opens the box and gets a wrap out, putting it on Vivi’s wound. “How did this happen?” Arthur asks, stressed out.

Vivi and Laurel looked at each other, not sure if they wanted to tell them the truth, but it was the right thing to do. “We were attacked by a woman who knew my family.” She said with a deep huff. 

It was at that moment Grandma Yukino had woken up, hearing those words. “Come again dear?” She says, taking off the head phones. 

“I said that we were attacked by a woman who knew us. I don’t even know why she would try to kill me.” She said, sounding very frightened now. 

“What did this woman look like?” She asks, slowly getting up from the bed. 

“Umm, she had a black jacket, some blue jeans, a fox mask, and a dagger.” Vivi tries to remember the description of the attacker.

“Wait...describe the fox mask.” Grandma Yukino said, wanting to know what it looked like.

“It was white with some cracks, red paint and I think dark circles around the eye holes.” Because of this, the old woman sighs and grips onto her cane tightly. Mystery whines more, lowering his head as his ears drooped back. So Vivi was right, they did know about this. 

“I’m not exactly sure what is going on, but I do have several questions.” Laurel speaks, getting everyone to look at her. Arthur took a second to realize that she was beautiful, an amazing young girl with dark hair and a smooth face. “Laurel, by the way.” She told them their name. Arthur’s eyes widened after this woman told her name to him, the one Vivi was talking about.

“Oh, I’ve heard about you.” Arthur said, trying his best not to describe how pretty she looked. “I’m Arthur by the way.” He went over to shake her hand right before his uncle cleared his throat, getting him to understand the situation here. “Right, I’m sorry.” 

“Anyway, what Vivi said is very personal to some of us.” Grandma Yukino glares at Mystery who gives a weak smile. “I’ll tell you tonight once we get everything settled.” She slowly walks back to her bed, sighing as her head drops down. “This is going to be a terrible time, Vivi.” She says, sounding disappointed. “I’ll put the stitches on you soon.”   
______________________________________________________________________________

Ten minutes later, Grandma Yukino started to stitch Vivi’s wound. Although it hurts, she was toughing it out. Mystery sat beside her, still whining and nudging her side. He too was worried about her and the woman who tried to kill her. The others were outside on the porch having a conversation. “Grandma, promise me that you won’t tell mom and dad about this.” Vivi begs, hoping that they won’t find out.

“I wish, but I can’t make promises. But I’ll try my best to hide this secret.” She said with a small smile. “So your friend, what does she do again?”

“She’s trying to be a lawyer at a college in New York.” Vivi says, tapping her fingers on the floor. “I think she’s almost done with her work.” 

“As much as I like to discuss more about her, we need to talk about what our next plan is.” Mystery said, wanting to change the subject. “Because if this woman knows where we are, we’re doomed.”

“I know that she’s just human, but I don’t understand why you guys are afraid of her. It’s not like she’s much more powerful than Shiromori.” Vivi wasn’t really on the same board with them besides that she’s dangerous. 

“It’s not if she’s human or not, it’s if she knows us very well. And I know how and why.” She said, again looking at Mystery with a glare.

“I...really didn’t think much about it.” Mystery says, lowering his head sadly. “Once Laurel is gone, I’ll tell you guys a story of a friend I used to have centuries ago.”

A few seconds later, the door opens wide open. Lewis, in his disguised form, rushes to Vivi who was almost done with the stitching. “Vivi, are you okay!?” He worriedly says, going on his knees as he looks at the wound. “Arthur called me and said you were attacked and had this huge cut.”

Vivi smiles, huffing calmly. “I’m fine LewLew. Just a scratch.” She says, calming him down. “Thank you for coming here to see me.” 

“Of course, I’ll do my best to make sure that you’ll be fine.” He said, holding her hand. “I won’t leave by your side, I promise.”

“Then you're just going to get me out of the job then if you do.” Mystery jokes, lowering his head under Lewis’ hand for a head pat. “But I’m sure I could protect you both.” 

“Heh, yeah.” Vivi laughs, smiling happily again. “We could use a guardian kitsune as our protector when we are at work.” She pets his head as he jumps into her lap, nuzzing her chest and licking her face. She returns with a gentle hug and a side pet.Lewis scoots to Vivi’s side, kissing her on the head with an arm around her. Grandma Yukino finishes her stitching, 9 stitches on her right arm, and watches as the three start giving each other afflictions. But yet her mind still thinks about the woman Vivi described, the fox mask and the dagger. She knew this knowledge from her ancestors, and Mystery of course. She may be old and fragile, but she has the power of a vision that can tell danger and misery. Hopefully the problem ends soon before her vision about Arthur comes true, if that’s the case.   
______________________________________________________________________________

Outside of Vivi’s house, Laurel, Arthur, Lance, and Galahad were minding their own business. Just a few minutes ago, Lewis had rushed by them to check on Vivi. Arthur was somewhat glad that he came back as a ghost instead of gone forever. Laurel had called an uber on her phone and was waiting for someone to arrive here. “What a day this has been.” She said, with a disappointed sigh. “This was the first time I’ve ever saw Vivi hurt that badly. It kinda scares me.” 

“Me too. And I thought that I was the one to be hurt a lot.” Arthur said, trying his best to start a conversation with her, only to have Lance and Galahad look at him weirdly. He walks to her, again trying to get a handshake. “My name is Arthur.” 

“Didn’t you already tell me?” She asks weirdly, shaking his metal arm which did get her attention. “That’s a cool arm, how did you get it?” 

“Oh umm, I….” He really didn’t know what to say, thinking how to explain that he was possessed, killed his best friend who was now a ghost, and had a giant kitsune rip it off. 

“Car accident.” Lance spoke for him. “His arm got stuck under the weight and had to cut it off.” 

“Oh, I’m really sorry about that.” Laurel said to Arthur who was red at the moment, embarrassed and shy. “Did you make the arm yourself?”

“Yeah, do you like it?” 

“I think it’s awesome.” She touches it, making Arthur blush. He’s never fallen in love before and yet she doesn’t know it, unless she was attracted by this eighteen year old who stays up working his butt off for some projects. “Vivi told me that you’re a genius in engineering.” 

“I sure am. Spent nights working and stuff. Gets me active most of the time.” This is the part where he starts to brag about his skills, making Lance roll his eyes while the tanuki shakes his head lazily. “Did anyone tell you how pretty you are?” He asks before his conscience goes into act, making him regret those words. “Oh wait, too early.” He backs out. “Maybe I should just shut up.”

Laurel giggles, thinking of how cute he was. “No need to worry. It’s fine. Thanks for asking though that was nice of you to say that.” She lets go of Arthur’s hand, seeing how red he was from just talking. “So what else do you know about me?’” She tests him, to see if Vivi told him everything.

“Umm let’s see….your a college student…...lawyer…...beautiful.” Again, he regrets saying that, thinking of how creepy that sounded. “God, why do I keep messing up?” Lance smirks in the background, knowing how stressed Arthur was at the moment. “Ok, can I start again? My name is Arthur.” He said for a third time, going for a second handshake. This made Laurel giggle again, thinking of how funny he was. 

“You know, if you want advice on managing your time, I can help. As a college student, it was my first goal before I did anything else.” Laurel suggests, now thinking about his work. “Your compliments on the other hand are good.” Behind them, a car beeps. They turn around to see a black SUV with a man as the driver. “That must be my ride. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good night.” She said, quickly turning to the car but then heading back around to Arthur. “One more thing.” She goes into her purse to get a pen and a notepad, writes something in the notepad before tearing it up and giving it to him. Laurel runs back to the car and gets in. Arthur watches as the car drives away with his new crush. He then looks at the note in shock, it was her phone number. His smile was so great that it was the best in years. 

“Seems like someone is in love.” Lance says, standing up from the chair. 

“I...I don’t know what came over me. It was like lighting had struck me.” He couldn’t describe it well, but knew that it changed his whole heart to something greater.

“More like love I would say.” Galahad said with a smirk, beginning to tease him. “It’s so nice to see you happy again and I do enjoy it.” Arthur kneels down to give him a head pat. “Shall we go inside and tell them all about what you said?”

“Umm let’s just skip that and tell them that Laurel is gone now. I’m not sure how Vivi would react if she knew that I have a crush on her best friend.” Arthur said, a little worried. 

“By all means, you do the talking then.” Galahad jokes as they went inside. The three then went upstairs and into Grandma Yukino’s room. 

“Laurel went back to the hotel.” Arthur tells the others, not saying anything about his love for Laurel. 

“Good, then we can explain the issue here.” Grandma said, letting Mystery do the talking. The dog whimpers one last time before walking to the back of the room before transforming into a kitsune. 

“As a start, I just want to say that I’m sorry again for bringing this on you. It wasn’t my idea for it to happen, but I had no choice.” Mystery said, sounding very sad.

“Care to explain then?” Vivi asks, wanting for some answers to what was going on.

“I will. It all started when I created Shiromori.”


	12. Makoto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place to where Mystery made Shiromori and how he met Mushi, along with the answers for vivi about the woman in the fox mask.

Centuries ago in a peaceful land of a forest in Japan, kitsunes used to roam the woods full of joy and life. They would explore around, watching the trees grow as petals and blossoms fall to the ground quietly. Some were tricksters who love to play tricks on their own kind and others act as guardians who protect each other and the forest around them. Mystery, with his nine tails, was both of those things. His friends loved him for his sneakily plays that got them laughing and cheering, unlike the ones who were the victims of his pranks. One day, everything changed when the humans had made their civilization right next to the forest, cutting down the trees for a village that was huge like a kingdom. All of the kitsunes, including Mystery, weren’t happy about this new village and decided to find some way to get them to leave. They disguised themselves as animals, roaming around to scare people who are alone in their kitsune form, making them go crazy. When that didn’t work, they decided to leave it like that, only to find out that they were still cutting more trees down to expand their village. 

It was their home, their place in which they worked hard on to protect. So that’s when the Human and Kitsune War started, the kitsunes were attacking the humans who entered the forest. But what they hadn't expected was their knowledge in weaponry, katanas and arrows. Most kitsunes survived the attack while others were left to die, using their skins as coats for the winter and meat to cook. From what Galahad said, he survived the attack, but lost his back legs and had to live as different animals to move around. Mystery was in rage, wanting to kill the whole village for what they had done to his friends and family. The other kitsunes decided to leave, knowing that they can’t evenly match then and left their home behind. Except for Mystery, he still wanted revenge and the best way to do that is to regrow his forest again. He remembered his father saying that his blood had the power to create yokais power enough to control the whole world. Though he did warn him not to, Mystery was desperate and needed to fix his home again. So he finds the flower that was pink and new, then bites his paw before dropping his blood on top of it. It transformed it into her, the one who promised to rebuild his home from the humans who had destroyed it. 

He named her Shiromori after his mother who passed away when he was a pup and raised her while teaching her how the humans were nothing but heartless monsters who killed kitsunes without any reason. When the years came, she used all of her hard work to build his forest, improved and stronger. Yet she was fascinated to learn that his blood was the reason to give her this power and how she was created. It was addicting to her, like she wanted more. 

Years later, when she was checking on the woods, she finds a little boy, age 7 to be exact, looking a bit lost. Remembering what Mystery had told her about humans, she wanted to kill him. She raised her shears that she somehow brought and was about to stab him right before Mystery got in the way. Luckily she didn’t kill him, but why save this boy? 

The kitsune wasn’t sure why he did that. Maybe it was the fact that this boy was too young to die and was crying. He wanted to spare him, but knew that he couldn’t send him back to the village, thinking the boy might give away his secret about Shiromori. Instead, he takes him into his home. The boy said that his name was Makoto and that he was running away from a crime he committed by stealing food. Mystery, who still believes that humans are worthless, wants to take care of him and treat him like he’s a pup. Shiromori took this into effect as she watches Mystery take care of a child. It angered her a little knowing that Mystery was somewhat breaking his own rule. 

Years passed and Makoto wasn’t a little boy anymore. He was a grown man, with black long hair, a face that was dirty, clothes that looked like he stole them from the village, and a mask he made himself with clay and paint. He also had a dagger made of blackened steel he cleans everyday. And Makoto was more than a petty thief now. He was trained to kill humans who entered the woods. Lumberjacks, hunters, travelers, he’ll kill anyone, no matter what age or gender they were. People were even making rumors about him, calling him the Snow Fox because of the mask he wears. For Mystery, he did kill one person, a lumberjack who was trying to cut down a tree. As a punishment, he lost a tail. 

As for Shiromori, she was busy making more trees, now hoping to use more of Mystery’s blood. She would cut his legs, draining his blood to the point where his legs felt numb. He was afraid that she might betray him and kill him for his blood. But if she does, then she’ll have to hunt down more kitsunes. Makoto didn’t know about how Shiromoir was created but knew her powers very well. He had watched her grow tree after tree, healthy and beautiful. And that’s the reason why he obeys her, the same for Mystery as he bows down to her when she comes to see him. Her ego never inflated because she didn’t care about being the leader, but more like being controlling. The kitsune didn’t really like that, since he was the one who brought her to life.

Weeks had come by and things got worse. Shiromori was using more of his blood than usual and Makoto started to listen to her more than Mystery, even though he had taken care of him. Another thing that happened was that he killed a second person, a samurai who was ordered to find out who was killing the people in the forest. It turns out that the man was armed with heavy armor and a large katana, but was no match to a bite in the neck. That’s where he lost his eighth tail for the sin he committed. But soon he’ll regret that soon. 

Shiromori had another idea, to invade the village and massacre the people. Makoto and Mystery liked the idea, wiping out the entire population that started the disaster in the first place. The kitsune had volunteered to be the one to spy on the village to see what advantages they could use against them. So he uses his fox form to scope out the place in the village, seeing the people enjoying life had disgusted him. He should be the one terrorizing these folks into leaving this place for good. Being a kitsune has it’s unique powers, like strength, speed, secrecy, and wisdom. The only issue with it is that there were dogs in the area who could sense kitsunes. They bark, growl, planning to attack him at all costs. The people got their attention to the fox and he had no choice but to retreat. He immediately went into his kitsune form, avoiding the arrows that were shot at him by the angry mob, trying to kill him. 

As he made his escape, a woman had blocked his path using a katana of hers. She was young, had blue hair in a long ponytail, with gray clothes. She points it at the startled kitsune who hopes that she’s not going to kill her. It turned out that she was the husband of the deceased samurai Mystery had killed. The woman was mad, furious that this kitsune had killed her lover. So the two had fought. The samurai woman left cuts on Mystery’s body as he claws her. He even left a good scar for her on her face. But of course it wasn’t good enough to take her down since he was strangely pinned down by her. The end of the katana was right at his chest, ready to be stabbed. He thought it was the end of him, being the last kitsune of the forest and now going to die because of his idiotic mistakes. But something happened, the woman hesitated and drew her katana back. She looked miserable, angry, and hated his guts. Of course, without saying a word she ran back to her village. Mystery, puzzled and dumbfounded, quickly ran back to his home in order to survive another attack. Whoever this woman was, she spared him for some reason, but why?

Things got even worse for Mystery. Shiromori was addicted to his blood and kept draining him until he was too weak to move. She had vines on his body, drank his blood and paled him. It wasn’t right for him to let her do this to him. She was slowly killing him and was probably planning too. Fearing for his life, he tried to tell her to stop, demanding that he’s going to be in charge now. This only made her angry enough to swing her shears at him, luckily he could dodge them. This is when he knew that he made the biggest mistake of all time. If he had left the woods with his friends and family, this wouldn’t have happened. Even Makoto wasn’t trusting him anymore and started to listen to her instead. 

His new plan was to escape the nightmare he should have left years ago, maybe hiding back in the village. But if he does that, the dogs will just bark at him again. Then there’s one more person who could try to help him, the woman who spared his life. It’s a one percent chance she could help him, but it’s very rare, knowing how mad she is for him killing her husband. 

And so he found her in the same place where he had once killed her husband, kneeling down for a prayer. It was stupid to talk to her, thinking that she could kill him without hesitation this time. But the woman remained calm, actually the one apologizing. Mystery was confused, questioning why she was acting like this. So she explains her own story of regret and confession. The woman, or Mushi she called herself, told him that when her mother was a child, she was there at the time of the Human and Kitsune war. She said that she saw a kitsune, limping away from the scar on his side. The kitsune, before he died, told the child that it was the humans who had started the war, not them. And it made so much sense to her, knowing that it was their land they had stolen from the kitsunes. To this day, she had been remembering the moment of her life, even passing the story to her own daughter who trained to become a samurai. 

So to Mystery, he had realized that he made a mistake. That not all humans are heartless as he thought that they would be. So after telling him his side of the story with Shiromori and her crazy addiction, she would like to help him. She said that her katana holded the power of the gods, ice and snow, she would describe it. She plans to confront Shiromori with the murders of her people along with the torture of Mystery. 

So the next day, he and Mystery were walking around in the woods, getting rid of Shiromori once and for all. That was until Makoto got in the way, holding his dagger to Mushi. In a quick hurry, Mystery told Makoto about their plan to kill Shiromori and leave the humans alone. He was hoping that his own boy would help him with the plan. The man who had once been trained by the kitsune felt betrayed, hurt that his own friend that he once called father was switching sides for the humans. He was livid, actually attempting to kill Mushi as he threw his dagger at her, missing. So there was a fight between the two humans as Mystery watched in horror as they tried to kill each other. He didn’t want them to fight, but they were and it was horrible for him. His anger stuck when Makoto had stabbed his blade into Mushi’s shoulder. Even though he had just met her yesterday, he still cared for her. He lost control, his eyes red with sharp teeth and he did the one thing that he surely regrets the most, he killed him. His teeth were right on his neck, biting down before tearing a piece off as blood sprang out. Makoto was in pain, leaning on the tree as he held onto his wound. 

Mystery knew what he had done, and cried. This was never supposed to happen, he thought. The kitsune, who had tears in his eyes, leaned closer to Makoto, giving him one last lick on his forehead as a sign of forgiveness. The last thing that Makoto said was “You would rather kill a family member instead of a stranger.” He then exhales his last breath before dying, his seventh tail disappearing. 

As for Shiromori, she wasn’t very happy about Makoto’s death but was planning to betray him soon if he was still alive. Mushi still fought Shiromori, but didn’t kill her as she escaped, promising to find and kill Mystery. As time went on Mushi suggested to Mystery to escape this land, moving somewhere where she would never find him. So it was a last goodbye for the two of them before Mystery finally made his way out of the woods and onto a new land, far away from Japan. 

For centuries, he’s been hiding as different animals ever since until he decided to stick to a dog. In the early 2000’s, he was brought and adopted by the Yukino family who looked very familiar to him, as if he knew them from somewhere. Grandma Yukino knew about him from a story her grandmother told her years ago when she was just a child, along with her visions of the past. And so this is where the story started as Mystery became the guardian of the Yukino family and the loving and adorable dog for Vivi Yukino.  
______________________________________________________________________________

“That’s….I’m really sorry to hear everything that you’ve been through.” Vivi says as Mystery finished his miserable past. “I never thought that you would have to kill him. You know, because you had taken care of him.”

Mystery let out a deep sigh, still remembering that moment. “I never wanted it that way. It was never my intention to kill him, but I had to.” He laid on the floor, a tear going down his cheek. “If he actually had killed her, I would never get my chance to see another day.” Feeling bad, everyone except Grandma Yukino and Galahad came over to him, comforting him as he cried. They gave him hugs and pets on the head, telling him that it was alright. “I’m sorry that I brought all of this onto you guys. And now I have put this family in danger.” He stood up, letting the gang still pet him. “When this woman finds us again, I’ll be the first to be put in line. I won’t let her harm any of you guys.” 

“Thank you, but we can’t just let you sacrifice yourself because of your mistakes. We can help you.” Vivi says, “Remember, we are all a team.” 

“I agree, even if we are in danger.” Arthur said, feeling more confident. “Do we have a plan to defeat her?”

“I was thinking on the lines of her coming to us.” Vivi answered, being the one in charge. “We don’t know where she’s at; but if we let her come to us, we can trap her.”

“Then it’s settled.” Lewis said, going with her plan. “Let’s all discuss the plan more and give Mystery here some more comfort with his past.” 

“Thanks guys, I really appreciate that.” Mystery said with a smile as he wraps his tails around everyone. For Galahad, he somewhat felt a little bad for Mystery after hearing his story. He would have felt the same way if he had to kill Arthur because he was attacking someone who might help him. But nevertheless, he walks over there to join the group. “How about we just relax for a moment before we do anything else? I have a feeling that I should make it up for you guys.” 

“Like what?” Vivi asks with a smirk. 

“Hmm, what about this?” He gets on top of her, licking her face as she laughs.

“Mystery!” She says, being tickled by his licks. “That’s too many!”

“There’s no such thing as too many.” He kept going as the others watched with a smile. But Arthur’s had changed when something came out of Vivi’s pocket. It looked like an old picture years ago. But it was very familiar to him, as if he knew those people in the photo. He goes over to Vivi’s side, picking up the photo as she still was being licked. 

He flipped to the back to see if there was any writing on it, which it didn’t. Flipping it around, it took him a second to realize that he knew those people in the photo, his parents. In shock and confusion, he sat there as he looked more at the photo and why Vivi had it in the first place. He can also see his mother holding a baby that looked exactly like him. Vivi turned to see Arthur looking at a photo that must have slipped out of her pocket when Mystery was licking her. “Oh, did it fall out?” She asks him, but he doesn’t respond. “Arthur? Are you okay?” They all drew their attention to him as he still stared at the photo.

“Arthur? What’s wrong?” Lance asks, wondering what Arthur was looking at.

“Vivi, where did you get this photo?” He asks, looking at her now. 

“It was at that house I was attacked in. The one that was abandoned in the woods.” She lost her smile and wondered what Arthur was thinking. “Do you know those people?”

“Yeah, they’re my parents.” All at once, their eyes widen. Vivi’s more since she was the first one to find the photo. “And that’s me as a baby. Vivi, where did you find this?”

“It was in a drawer in the basement. I didn’t know that was you in the photo.” She crawled to him, looking at the photo too. “I really didn’t know, I’m sorry.”

“Why was my family photo in an abandoned house?” He starts asking questions as if Vivi could answer them. 

“I really don’t know. If I knew the answer I would tell you.” Vivi said, holding on his arm. “Did you live in that house once?”

“I don’t know. I was just a baby, but…….” He paused midway, remembering something.

“But what?” Galahad asks, hopping onto his lap.

“They never told me where I was born.” Arthur’s parents never said which place he was born, even if he did ask once when he was little. But after their deaths, he didn’t get to think of that before. “So maybe I was born here and then moved to Newbraska.” He then turns to his uncle. “Did you know about this?” He should know, he was his father’s brother. 

“Yes, you were born here, but told me not to tell you that.” Lance says, getting everyone to look at each other confusedly. 

“What, why?” Arthur stood up, looking at him accusingly. “Is there something you’re hiding from me?”

“No, not at all. He just never told me and said not to question it.” He sighs a bit before putting his hands in his pockets. “But you did live in that house once, how it got destroyed is beyond me.” 

“I see. I...need some time to think about it. I have to go back home.” Arthur was puzzled by all of this, questioning his own existence. 

“Yeah, I think we should go. It’s getting late.” Lance said, walking to the door with Arthur and Galahad.

“Goodnight guys and I hope you find out about that picture more.” Mystery said, getting off of Vivi. “But please be careful, I’m not liking where that may take you.” 

“I will.” And just like that, the three left the door and went out of the house where they will drive back to their home.

“I guess our adventure isn’t over yet.” Lewis said, holding Vivi close to him. “But atleast I’m here to help.” 

“Yeah, we could use your powers in case things get rough.” Vivi said, leaning her head on his chest. 

Jax comes out of the locket, happy to see them together. “I love it when you two are very loving again.”

“Where were you all this time?” Lewis asks with a smirk.

“I didn’t want to bother you sir. But now I get to talk to you guys.” He moves right between them nuzzling them both. As for Grandma Yukino, she decided to go back to sleep, planning to ignore another conversation. Mystery lays next to them in his kitsune form still. He still regrets the day that he killed the one who he promised to protect when he was just a child and it seems like karma is coming to bite him in the back soon now that someone is coming after him. But more questions arose like how she knew about this and where she got the fox mask and blade. Maybe those questions can be answer when he faces her.


	13. Bloody Headaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur gets painful headaches and it gets worse.

Two in the morning, and Arthur was still awake from his bed. All he kept thinking about was that photo Vivi had found in the abandoned house. A lot of questions still went through his head, those that kept scaring him. Just looking at the picture gave him PTSD about their deaths in his head. The gunshots he heard as a child when he was running in the forest, sitting behind the tree crying. It all felt so real to him, and it was. He wished that it was all a dream and he could wake up as that child, still in his childhood bedroom and seeing his loving parents. But this wasn’t a dream, it’s a nightmare into reality. 

If he couldn’t go to sleep, he might as well stay up. Though Galahad might yap at him when he finds out in the morning. But at least he had a good reason for it besides working, which he might do too to buy time. He slowly sat on his bed, staring at his drawer with his mechanical arm on the charger. WIth his other arm, he rubs his eyes which were in a need of stretching. On the other side of the bed was Galahad in his Tanuki form, sleeping on the floor. It all seemed like something was telling him something. It couldn’t be a conscience that Vivi had somehow found a picture of his family without knowing, along with going to an abandoned house that used to be the one he lived in as a baby. 

He stands up from the bed and takes his mechanical arm, quietly exiting the room so he wouldn’t wake up Galahad. Next, he walks to the living room where he sits on the couch, still thinking about what to do. He knows that by the time he gets to that basement, Galahad is just going to go right into his kitsune form and drags him right back to his room. What the kitsune does next is beyond Arthur, which scared him the most since Galahad has been aggressive lately.

He sighs quietly, starting to feel bored, but yet active. He could tell the two that he couldn’t sleep. No, that wouldn’t work either way. Uncle Lance is grouchy when he’s woken up early and Galahad is much worse. How does he know that? He’s seen Galahad as a hamster growling at him when woken up early. So waking them up is a risk taker. So he decides to start his day off very early, no matter how pissed Galahad will be. Arthur stands up from the couch and heads into the bathroom where he plans to brush his teeth as if he didn’t do that before he had gone right to bed. In the mirror, he could see how tired he was, with the bags under his eyes. His life started to spiral downwards, went up a little, then back down as if being happy didn’t matter anymore to him, which it didn’t. 

After he cleaned his teeth, he opened the medicine cabinet and took out some medication. There was a bottle of antidepressants Arthur’s been taking ever since he learned the truth about Lewis’s death. It was the guilt that haunted him from the time going on. The bottle was white with a colorful label that had the words antidepressants with warnings on the bottom. Those warnings are what he didn’t care about. It’s not like they were going to harm him if he didn’t take a few, or that’s what he thought at first. Arthur opens the cap and takes a few out right before swallowing them down without any water. Then he puts the bottle back up in the cabinet and takes some deep breaths to calm himself. Even if he did take them, he thought that they never worked right, like they were placebos. Because being depressed is one of the worst problems he had for weeks now, including other things that could connect to it. 

Then the sudden pain into the head had made it even worse for him. It was sharp and painful like he had hit himself with a glass bottle that never broke. It could’ve been a side effect to the pills he took, but it was quick. The pain was getting stronger by the second, making him weaker. “God, this headache.” He groans. What was going on with him at 2 AM?  
______________________________________________________________________________

Back in the lab of SynthCorp, Commander Kyle was with a group of scientists in a lab where they were working on Arthur’s brain. It turns out that they did found a way to reconnect his brain and just like Arron Richards said, it was giving him headaches painful enough to make it torture. “Increase the voltage.” Kyle said as an order. 

“Yes sir.” Aaron listens, turning up the voltage. The max is at ten, a dangerous scale to be at for Arthur. The volume was at three, a highly mild headache that had tension all around his sides. 

“Keep increasing the volume each minute until we reach a signal.” Kyle says, watching the other scientists at work. “It has to be there somewhere.”  
______________________________________________________________________________

“Why won’t it go away?” It was more painful than the last, like it was a bomb detonating. He got out of the bathroom, walking back into the living room. “It hurts so much.” He whispers so he wouldn’t wake up the others. Yet the pain was too much for him to handle. Once it became a killer, he shouts in pain. Arthur fell to the floor, grunting to the headaches that were trying to kill him. “Make it stop!” He cries in pain. It was too much for him to handle, tears going to down his face. 

His screaming of pain had woken up Lance who rushed in to find his nephew on the floor in pain. “Arthur!? Are you okay!?” Lance got to his knees, putting a hand on Arthur’s back. “Speak to me!” The uncle was worried about him, trying to keep Arthur calm with whatever was going on.

The pain in Arthur’s head wasn’t getting better. He wanted to lash out to whatever was doing this to him. “It hurts!” He keeps shouting in pain. “My head!” 

“Stay calm Arthur. I’ll go get some medication.” Lance quickly rushes to the medicine cabinet to find medicine that can help with his headache. “Galahad! I need help here!” He shouts, needing assistance from the Tanuki.  
______________________________________________________________________________

“It’s not working. Keep increasing it more.” Kyle still orders. 

“Sir, won’t that kill him?” Arron was starting to doubt if this was a good idea to do this. They’re up to level five and at the possible change of sudden bleeding. “Right now, he’s experiencing killer headaches.” 

“I need you to find that signal and transmit it to his body. Understand?” He starts getting aggressive, still on the goal. “Arthur Kingsmen is our last hope to completing the mission. Without him, we have to go through the whole experiment again.”

“I understand sir.” So Arron proceeds to increase the voltage in Arthur’s brain up to level six. It wasn’t his job to torture the poor guy, but to make sure that they had him in their control.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Galahad jerked his head up after hearing Lance’s panickey tone. “Lance?” He gets up and rushes to the room. The first thing he saw was Arthur on the ground in pain and screaming. “Arthur!?” He immediately went into his kitsune form before rushing over to Arthur. “Arthur, hold on!” He checks around him to see if he had any wounds on him, which he didn’t. “What’s going on with him!?” He shouts to Lance who rushes into the room.

“I’m not sure! He said that his head was hurting!” He got the medications for Arthur. “Here take these!” 

“It hurts! Make it stop!” He was in absolute pain, couldn’t even think straight as he slapped the bottles out of Lance’s hand. “Ahhhh!” 

“Arthur, please stay with us!” Galahad said, doing what he can to help him. “I….I don’t think we can do anything!” He quickly wraps himself around Arthur, using his tails to put ease at his head while restraining him. “Please don’t die, please don’t die.” He fears for Arthur’s life, trying to hold it together. 

“You need medicine!” Lance grabs the bottles again and fearfully opens them, forcing Arthur to swallow them down. Although the pills were supposed to give effects minutes later, the pain wasn’t getting better. His screams and struggling were good enough for the two of them to panic. “Please settle, the pills should help you.” Lance picked up the bottles and put them back into the medicine cabinet. 

Galahad was terrified with what Arthur is going through right now and as someone who’s supposed to save him, he doesn’t know how to stop it. His heart had stopped when he saw blood coming out of his eyes. “Lance! His eyes are bleeding!” 

Lance froze in place after hearing what Galahad just said to him. He runs back to the two, seeing the blood coming from his eyes and going down his face. “Oh god! We need to get you to the hospital!” He got Arthur to stand up, putting one arm over Galahad’s back while Lance opened the door. “I’ll drive the van!” The three went to the van and Lance opened the back door for Arthur and Galahad. The kitsune coils around Arhur, still restraining him while licking the blood off of his face. Lance then quickly gets in the driver’s seat and starts the car, slamming on the gas hardly to get the van going fast. 

Galahad uses a tail to cover his mouth to muffle his screaming, letting his blood stain it. “Hold on Arthur, we’re going to the hospital.” This was the first time that he’s seen Arthur in pain, not a story that they had told him. He then starts to cry a little, whining while nuzzling his neck.  
______________________________________________________________________________

They were at level seven, ascending to level eight next. “Sir, it’s not working.” Arron said, now being even more worried. “We need to stop or he’ll die.”

“No, there’s a way. We need to make it to level nine next.” He refuses to give up, not when he’s this close to getting to his brain. “We’re so close. I can feel it.” 

Arron sighs and increases the volume, not to eight, but to nine. There were still no signs of a connection to his brain. “It’s not working, we got to shut it down.” He tells the commander, hoping that he could stop this. 

Commander Kyle takes the time to think about it. In anger, he slams on the desk. “Fine! Shut it all down everyone!” He said to every scientist in the room who turns off their activators. “Arron, if you mess this up again, I’m gonna kill you.” He storms out of the room with the scientist huff in relief. Arron looks back at the screen to see how much damage he had done to the poor guy's brain. It’s active level was at a high dangerous level and could’ve died if he hadn’t had second thoughts. He still wonders why he does this.  
______________________________________________________________________________

He didn’t know if it was the medication or something else, but the pain was going down. “Holy crap, I….” Arthur tried to speak, but with Galahad shushing him while crying, he remained silent. He wiped his eyes, which were bloody. Everything hurted him in his head, both inside and outside. 

“Arthur, we are getting you to the hospital. If you start saying that you're fine, I’m gonna scratch and bite you.” Galahad warns him, whining and nuzzles his chest. 

“Of course I’m not fine! I just had the worst headache of my life!” He said angrily at Galahad who was startled by Arthur’s immediate reaction. “It still hurts.” 

“You don’t need to yell Arthur, he’s just helping you.” Lance was still worried about what just happened. Luckily, he just made it to the hospital and parked the van. “Come on, we are going to get you to a doctor.” He gets out of the driver’s side and goes around to the back to open the doors. “Galahad, change into your dog form again.”

Galahad nods and transforms, wiping his tears. “Just please don’t let them kick me out.” He wants to stay with Arthur for tonight at the hospital.

“I’ll ask. Hopefully they will let you stay.” Lance grabbed Arthur’s hand and walked him to the hospital. Whatever Arthur was experiencing right now, Lance thought that it had something to do with Grandma Yukino’s visions she told him. But the vision wasn’t him in physical pain which made him have second thoughts. So he plans to call the others once Arthur gets checked in and have a meeting with them.  
______________________________________________________________________________

It felt like deja vu for Arthur as he woke up in the hospital at nine in the morning. His head was still hurting from before, but his eyes stopped bleeding. He was back into the hospital gown he once wore when he was in the hospital last year after losing his arm. Speaking of his arm, his mechanical one wasn’t there. How could things get any better if they kept getting worse? He looks around the room to find that he is alone again. His uncle and guardian must’ve been very worried sick about him. Arthur wonders where they are at. 

A knock on the door was heard next to him. “It’s Dr. Winters.” Arthur recognized the name and voice from anywhere. He was his doctor from last year. 

“Come in.” Arthur said as Dr. Winters opens the door. The man never changed at all with his outfit and facial appearances. 

“Glad to see you alive again. You’re a natural born survivor.” He puts down his clipboard on the table like last time. “I guess you already know why you are here, so I’m going to ask if you have felt anything like this before.”

“No, never in my life. I’m not even sure how it happened.” Arthur, now confused, wanted to ask some questions about his own body system. What could cause him to have the most torturous headache and make his eyes bleed? 

“Can you tell me what you did before it happened?” He questions.

“I couldn’t sleep at first so I decided to stay up late. Then I took some antidepressants and that was it. But it was only one pill, just one.” He very doubts that the antidepressants had given him this, he took them numerous times without any problems. 

“I see. Are you sure they were antidepressants? Sometimes, people can’t think straight when you're tired.” He suggests thinking that Arthur took a different medication. 

“No, they were antidepressants. I know it.” He saw the label, the name, and the shape and color of the pill. He exactly knows that he did take the antidepressants. 

“No need to get angry, Mr. Kingsmen.” He eases Arthur down.

“Sorry, I just don’t know what could have done this to me.” With a defeated sigh, he stopped what he was talking about. “Is my uncle here?” 

“Yes, and your friends too. They’re in the waiting room waiting for you.” He picks up his clipboard. “Do you want me to tell you what you're dealing with right now or tell them too?” 

“I want them to hear. Maybe they can help.” He answers, being very hopeful that they do help.

“I’ll get them right away then.” He leaves the room, closing the door behind him. It still feels like deja vu to him. Though with a different situation at hand. 

A few minutes later, the door opens. Vivi, Lewis, Mystery, Galahad, and finally Lance all came to see him. “Oh my god, Arthur.” Vivi says, going over to him to hug. “Lance told us what had happened. Are you feeling okay?” 

“My head still hurts, badly.” He stood up from his bed, hugging Lewis and giving Mystery, who whines, a head pat. “Thank you all for coming.” He pets Galahad’s head and finally a hug for Lance.

“We all quickly came in as soon as we heard the news. Your eyes look messed up.” Lewis says, making Arthur a bit worried.

“Wait….how bad are they?” 

“Bloodshot.” Mystery answers. “It’s all red.” 

Arthur groans in misery. “You gotta be kidding me.” He sat on the edge of his bed. Galahad hopped on and nuzzled his leg. “I don’t know how this happened. I took an antidepressant and-”

“You take antidepressants?” Vivi asks. She never knew that he had taken medications before, along with Lewis. Mystery knew from the start when he sensed false happiness from the young adult. “You never told us about that.”

Arthur stared at her in sadness. “I just didn’t feel happy from when I found out that Lewis died. Not to forget the other things that happened too. I also didn’t want you guys to watch me drown in depression so I prescribed some antidepressants and have been taking some.”

“For how long?” Lewis asks. 

“Weeks ago. Right after Mystery told me everything.” He didn’t want to make it look like it was Mystery’s fault. It was his decision to take antidepressants even if Mystery felt a little disappointed about it. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you guys. I just didn’t know how you would’ve felt if I did.” 

“It’s okay Arthur, we understand.” Vivi sat by him, patting his back. “We’re just glad that you’re still alive.” 

Doctor Winters came back into the room with the clipboard again. “I’ve got the results. Are you sure you want me to tell them?”

“Yes, we need to know what is going on with him.” Lance spoke up. “It’s best if you tell all of us.” 

“As you wish.” He then turns to Arthur. “We don’t know what caused it, but it seems like you have terminal brain damage.” 

Arthur lowers his head and then back up. “Just tell me everything.”

“The test results showed us that your brain had somehow been actively high. A sign of use of drugs like cocaine in the system, which you didn’t have. If it went on for any longer, you would have had a stroke or brain failure which leads to death. I suggest you stay here for a bit longer for today before you go home.” 

“Any medicine that he might use?” Vivi asks.

“Not that I can think of, but I’ll check with the pharmacal doctors and see if they have any medications for this. I’ll leave you guys be.” He said, leaving the room once again.

“Brain damage? What is going on here?” Arthur said, getting scared. “First my arm and now my brain? It’s like the whole world is against me.”

“No it’s not...I think.” Vivi says, “But we are here with you and get you through this.” 

“Well, I’ve been thinking.” Lance says, walking to them. “It’s best if Arthur stays out of this.”

“What, why?” Arthur asks, standing up.

“I, er us don’t want you to get hurt anymore. And I’m not the only one that agrees with this.” Lance then turns to the others who looked a bit ashamed, but yet was also agreeing with him.

“I’m sorry Arthur, but I’m on board with Lance. It’s best if you let us deal with this.” Mystery says, hopping onto the bed. “I’m sure we can figure something out.” 

“So what then? I’m just going to stay home while you guys go out on a suicide run?” 

“It’s not a suicide run, we are trying to keep you safe.” The dog argues. “But we can be safe too. Galahad and Lance will stay with you in case your headaches happen again.” 

“I didn’t say I wasn’t coming with you.” Lance said, now arguing with Mystery. “I’m coming with you guys.” 

“Me too.” Galahad agrees. 

“Lance, I know that you want to help, but it’s best if you let us do this.” 

“I’ve handled many things, Mystery, and I’m not just going to let Arthur suffer with all of this. I’m coming, no matter what.” 

Mystery sighs, thinking that there’s no choice. “Fine, just don’t get yourself killed.” He walks to the door, ready to go home. 

“We’ll...see you later Arthur. Just feel better.” Vivi said with one last hug before going with Lewis and Mystery. 

“Thanks.” Arthur says, laying back down in his bed. The three left out of the door until it was just him, Lance and Galahad. “That was really brave what you said uncle.”

“I’m just doing whatever I can to help. Now how come Mystery thinks a middle aged man can’t help his own nephew?” He huffs with a smirk. “Did he forget that I came with him when we were fighting Shiromori?” 

“He’s just looking out for you just like everyone else.” Arthur assures him.

“If anything, I’m gonna make sure that he actually helps out instead of just sitting there.” Galahad said, laying right on Arthur. “Now, promise us that you’ll stay home like Mystery says.”

“I promise Galahad, I’ll make sure that I stay at home.” He rubs the dog’s head. “Just don’t start a fight with Mystery, he’s my friend too.”

“Say friend again and I might throw up.” Galahad says in disgust, making Arthur laugh. “Anyway, we should get you out of here, right Lance?” He turns to him.

“That’s the plan. I’ll pay the bill again.” He crosses his arms, feeling a bit disappointed that he has to pay another hospital bill. 

“I can pay for it.” Arthur insists.

“No, it’s fine. I’ve done this before and I can do it again. I’ll go check in with Dr. Winters and check you out.” He said leaving the room.

“Do you think that he’s mad?” Arthur asks Galahad who looks at him in surprise.

“Of course not! Why would he be mad?” 

“Well from all the times I got myself in danger, I feel like he just can’t handle it anymore with me.” He pets his head again. “Say that I pissed you off, what’s the first thing you do?”  
“Is that even a question? I’ve made a step by step process of how my aggressiveness increases. Starting with snarling, that’s the first thing I do. Then if it involves a stranger who has harmed you.” He takes this deep breath as if he was angry enough. “Just wish that you weren’t the stranger.” 

“Okay then.” He was indeed wishing that he wasn’t. 

“I’m going to parent you once we get home. I’ll comfort you, get you fed, make sure you get all the snuggles I can give you, wrapped in tails and everything.” He nuzzles on Arthur’s face, licking it too.

“Thanks Galahad. But I think Lance does all of that, well except the snuggling.” Arthur hugs Galahad. It felt good for him to have Galahad as a talking kitsune/tanuki who loves to overprotect his owner. But he still didn’t feel right with the others doing his problems, like he should be the one doing this. But would he break that promise? If he does, then he knows that he just gave himself a death sentence if they know.


	14. The Burning Disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Laurel discover more secrets than they were looking for, including their near death experience in the burning

He had lied to them. Arthur was driving his road down to the abandoned house that Vivi had told him yesterday right after he was signed out of the hospital. The young adult wanted to know the truth of why his old house was torn down. So before he got in his van, he convinced Galahad to go with Lance to the workshop to help him with work while the other three, including Jax, were somewhere in the town either discussing what the plan is or something else. He makes it to the house only to find out that someone else is there. It was a white honda with a license plate from New York. He could also see someone getting out of the driver’s seat as if they had just arrived. So he parks the van right next to the car and hops out. He was curious to know who it was and then it all came down on him, Laurel Inti. “Laurel?” He asks, seeing her getting out of the car and shutting the door. 

“Arthur, hey.” She said with a smile, coming over to him for a hug. “I’m really sorry I couldn’t come to the hospital yesterday. I overslept.” Laurel could see how red his eyes were still, but not as bad as they were when Vivi took a picture of them. “I’m glad that you’re getting better.” 

“Yeah, my head is all better now.” He smiles as he rubs the back of his head. The young adult was very glad to see her again, how he was lovestrucked again by looking at her young pretty face. “So what are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming since that umm...you know.” 

“I wish I haven’t, but I lost my necklace. My grandfather gave it to me years ago and I can’t lose it.” She said, crossing her arms in disappointment. “I think that when Vivi and I were fighting that crazy woman, it must have torn off from my neck. What brings you here?” Laurel asks him for his reason.

“Eh, it’s a long story. But I’ll say that this is my old house when I was just a baby.” He said, surprising Laurel. “I’m just trying to find out why it’s like this.” Arthur looks back at the house, seeing how distorted it was. 

“Still gives me the creeps.” She shivers. The two walk into the house, the door already opened. The woman stops and freezes in place while looking at the basement. “Oh crap.” She whispers, nervously. 

“What’s wrong?” Arthur asks, looking at her. 

“The woman.” Her heart beats fast and her hands shake. She remembered about how that woman with the white fox mask had attacked them in that basement, trapped in the debris. If she was still there, would she be dead or waiting to strike back? “We fought in that basement when VIvi and I were doing a ghost hunt. I’m not sure if she’s still there or not.” In a split second, she pulls out a 45 caliber pistol that was shiny, sliver, and big, like those ones in gang TV shows. 

“You have a gun?” Arthur asks, startled by the sound of her drawing out her gun. 

“It’s for self defense ever since I was attacked there.” She aims the gun in the basement and proceeds to slowly walk down the stairs. Arthur stays behind her and now wishes that he had brought the shotgun Lance owns, that is if he would let him use it. The gun had its own personal flashlight which was attached to the bottom of the barrel. As Laurel searches the dark place, Arthur looks to his left and finds a lightswitch. He lazily turns it on, blazing the room with light. It gave Laurel a little jumpscare and turned around to Arthur. “There was a lightswitch?” She sighs disappointedly, putting her gun back in her holster. “Why didn’t we see that earlier?” 

Arthur just shrugs and walks around in the basement. Laurel looks to the location to where the woman was trapped at and finds out that she’s gone. It was both a good and bad sign for Laurel. “I’m guessing she escaped.”

“God, now I got to call Vivi for the bad news.” She takes out her cell phone and plans to call Vivi, which alerts Arthur very much.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” He calls out, trying to get her to stop. “Let’s not do that.”

“What, why?” Laurel confusedly asks. 

Arthur needs to explain how he had disobeyed everyone’s orders and lied to them. “Let’s say that she and a lot of people will be pissed if they find out that I’m not home.” 

“Oh really?” She gave out this smirk with a hand on her hip. “So you’re breaking the rules, like a bad boy?” 

“Umm, I’m not sure if that was supposed to be a flirt or saying that I should change my act.” Arthur is the type of person who doesn’t know how to reply back to a compliment, yet very red as if he could understand what he was saying. What was he saying? She’s hot, beautiful, and now with him on this strange adventure. “What I mean is-”

“I know what you mean.” She interrupts him. Now why was everyone interrupting him? Did they know what he was gonna say? “I want you to close your eyes for a moment.” 

“Okay?” So he does, a bit worried about what was about to happen. Laurel walks closer to him, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. Arthur opens his eyes in amazement, looking up at her with a smile. “T-thanks.” He stutters.

“I knew you'd like that.” She turns around and begins her search for finding the necklace. “So can you explain why they would be mad at you for disobeying them?” Laurel goes back onto that subject.

“It’s...well…..” He let this disappointing defeated sigh. “They just don’t trust me going on my own after…..some things.” He wasn’t going to explain how much danger he was in and what it was about. “I know that I’m an adult, not a kid.”

“Oh, now I get it. Can I tell you something?” She asks, crossing her arms.

“Sure.” Arthur says, letting her.

“Back in high school with me and Vivi, we’ve been together for so many years that I’ve always seen her as a sister. Being an overprotective one of course. She would do these dangerous things with Lewis and I had to be there just to make sure they stay safe. Heck, she even got herself arrested once.”

Arthur’s eyes went into shock after hearing about Vivi being in jail. “She was arrested? For what?” 

“Well she was just trespassing some place to look for ghosts and the cops took her in to the police station. I was the first one to meet her in that jail cell, but I could tell that she wasn’t scared of it at all. Vivi’s a rebellion and that’s why I have to be there for her.” She giggled as she thought of it. “And I know that I’ve met you for a few days and don’t know each other very well, but I could see you like a brother.”

“Oh, I see.” He was expecting more on being her boyfriend, still a bit too early for the two. 

“Well, I do know much about boys and what they love most, like you being interested in me.” And Arthur’s heart had stopped beating, his face all red, and his electrical arm twitching in place. “If you love me, just say so. I know how you feel.”

This was getting unexpected by each minute they spent here. “Do…...do you love me?” He asks, embarrassed. 

“Hmm, maybe. Maybe not.” She was teasing his feelings, but knows better. “I still need to find my necklace. It should be here somewhere.” 

“Here, I’ll help.” Arthur assists, looking for the necklace with Laurel. He checks on the ground while Laurel moves things around. “What does it look like?”

“It’s gold with a symbol of the sun. It’s small so it’ll be easy to miss.” Laurel describes it, looking very closely. She then turns to him. “Did I ever tell you about the The God of Sun, Taita Inti?” 

“No, but that last name sounds familiar. Isn’t that yours?” 

“Definitely. You see, my whole family adores him and praises. They do ceremonials, parties, and prayers. You get the idea.” She turns back around and continues to search for the necklace. “Sun in kichwa is Inti.”

“I did not know that.” Arthur chuckles.

“The more you know.” As Arthur was looking at some wood on the ground, he looked up and came face to face with a brown and black cat that scared him. He quickly moves back, hitting some worn out planks. Laurel jerks her head to where Arthur was at and the cat. “Oh, Sisa.” She says, walking up to the cat that meows. “I thought I told you to stay in the car.” Laurel picks up the cat and pets it.

“Sisa?” He asks, calming himself. “Is that your cat?” 

“Oh yeah. Sisa is my loyal and fun loving cat. She came with me on the trip since I had no one to watch her back in New York.” Sisa looks at Arthur with a starting glare before purring. “She’s a nice cat. Maybe she and Mystery will have fun together.” Something tells him that they won’t have fun together, neither will Galahad.

“Right. She did scare me.” Arthur says, feeling embarrassed. 

“Oh she scares everyone. It’s what she does.” She then puts Sisa down and still looks for the necklace. In a minute, she finds it under some rubble. “I found it.” She cheers before putting it on. “Sweet.” The necklace was exactly how Laurel described it, gold with a symbol of a sun. 

“I’m glad you found it, it looks really nice.” Arthur compliments.

“Thanks, like I said, my grandfather gave this to me before he died.” Laurel says, feeling a little sad after remembering his death. “I still miss him.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that. I know what it’s like to lose the people you love.” He sympathizes with her. They become silent with Sisa walking around the place before hopping on the desk at the end of the wall. “Anyway, I should get back to my investigation.”

“Do you want some help?” Laurel asks, wanting to assist him. 

“That would be great.” He says, pleased. So the two search the place again, only this time for any clues to the photograph. “We are looking for anything that’s relating to this picture.” He pulls it out of his pocket and hands it to her.

“Thanks.” She looks at it, realizing that it was a family with a baby. “That’s a nice picture, who’s the baby?”

“Me.” He said, bluntly. 

“Oh, you look cute.” This made Arthur blush more than he could ever be.

“Thanks.” Without any other words they look at all of the things that were under the broken boards and scraps of wallpaper like burned papers, ripped up books, pencils that were snapped in half. Arthur then heads for the desk, where Vivi had found the picture before. He starts with the drawer which was jammed, but found nothing inside after he opens it. Then he wipes the top that had dust and crumbs from materialized concrete or wood chunks. There was anything in the wood itself that would reveal any secrets. As he was about to give up, he learned something from uncle Lance that may give him some idea. He saw how Lance puts his tax papers under his desk, mostly jamming it under there so no one would try to find it. Remembering this procedure, he crouches and reaches his robotic arm underneath the desk. Although it wasn’t a real arm, he could feel something. It felt like paper so he carefully pulled it out. “I got something.” He said to Laurel.

“What is it?” She asks, standing there with her arms crossed. 

Arthur looks at the paper which looked like something from the hospital. But on the top right corner, it had the logo. “SynthCorp.” Arthur whispers, wondering who they are and what they do. Upon looking even more closely, he sees his name on the top left with all of his health information like weight, age, blood type, gender, and even eye and hair color. Again, just like at a hospital. But there was more than that, it had procedures for heart rate, anxiety, brain activity level, and blood pressure. “What?” Then he finds out about these descriptions or as whoever made this document called it, numbered tests. It describes some nanobots in his body, connecting into his brain. Now this was interesting to him. He has nanobots in his body which could control his movements and give him any physical or emotional pain feeling that wasn’t there. That could explain the headache he had gotten yesterday. But this also meant that he was a test subject for their nanobots. Before he could fold the paper, some words had caught his attention. It says [The only side effect for this new project is the turning of the skin from normal color to dark green. Dr. Richards is trying to fix that issue as soon as possible.] That’s when it popped into his head. Mystery had told him about how his arm was green before he had killed Lewis, a memory that was never forgotten. But from everything he had just read, this means that he was never possessed. He was controlled. “Oh god…” He couldn’t speak right after reading this.

“Arthur, is something wrong?” She asks, concerned. 

He wasn’t going to explain it to her, not that it really should matter. “It’s nothing.” In anger, he kicked the desk leg hard enough for it to hit the back of the wall, forming cracks upwards onto the ceiling. “Uhhhhh.” He watches as the cracks form on the ceiling before-

“Arthur watch out!” Laurel screams in fear as the ceiling tries to collapse on Arthur. In a quick attempt, a golden light zaps out of her hands and destroys the debris. Sisa yelps in a meow while running away. The two look at each other in fear, puzzlement, and surprise. But of course the golden light had set fire to the desk. Arthur jumps backwards, watching the whole thing engulfed in flames. But that wasn’t all, the floor and the walls were also being flamed up by the fire. “Arthur, we need to go!” She says, running towards the stairs. Arthur does the same and puts the piece of paper, which was safe from the fire, into his pocket, folded up. 

As they got up the stairs, it was too late. The fire spread around quickly like a race car going down the track. The furniture, walls, ceiling, floor, the railing to the stairs, everything. Arthur’s only guess was that the house was never burned down in the first place and is pretty flammable. Their only exit was blocked by not only the fire, but a piece of large wood that drops down right in front. “We need to find a new way out!” Arthur tells her, running to the backdoor. Laurel follows her behind, but then stops. “What are you doing!?” He asks, right at the door.

“I have to find Sisa!” She says back, looking over her shoulder to find her cat. “Sisa!” Laurel calls out. 

Arthur then started to feel regret about leaving her cat behind. In an attempt to remove that guilt away, he runs to her. “I’ll go find her!” He plays the hero.

“Then I’ll help!” She insists. “Sisa!” She calls out again. The ceiling was about to break soon if they didn't find the cat quickly. “We have to find her fast before this whole place collapses!” After that, they hear a desperate meow above them. “Sisa! Stay where you are, we are coming!” The two rush back into the front entrance and now go upstairs where they splitted up while finding Sisa. 

“Sisa!? Where did you go!?” Arthur shouts, looking in every flaming room. At this point, Arthur thought that she was dead, burned to the crisp and that meow was her last words. 

“I found her!” Laurel calls out to Arthur, holding Sisa in her hands. The cat was scared and shivering. Arthur smiles for a moment, going to her only to have the floor collapsed underneath him. With an unexpected surprise, he screams before landing face first onto the ground in the first floor. “Arthur!” She looks down to see Arthur weakly getting up.

“You gotta be kidding me.” He groans in pain. Arthur looks up to see Laurel looking down at him, very worried and scared for him. “I’ll be there! Just go downstairs. The young woman nods and makes her way to the stairs, right before some debris crashes down, blocking her path. 

“I’m trapped!” She screams, terrified of the thought of dying. The woman hyperventilates, starting to suffocate from the smoke. “I can’t breathe.” She starts coughing, the same with Arthur.

“Crap!” He finally gets up and runs to the front of the stairs to see the damage it’s done. He couldn’t even see her from the giant flames. “I’ll save you!” He bends over and starts coughing. “Just hold on.”

Sisa then hops out of Laurel’s arms and runs towards a room on the far left. “Sisa no!” Laurel weakly walks to the room where she enters and sees the cat near the window. “Good thinking Sisa.” She goes over to the window and tries to open it, which was stuck. “Come on!” She grunts while coughing from the smoke. With a second choice, she breaks the window by using her elbow. Sisa jumps out while Laurel carefully climbs out of the window without cutting herself. She stands on the porch roof that creaks every step she makes.“Now how to get down?” 

Meanwhile Arthur went on with the plan to go through the backdoor. He runs full speed and slams into it, breaking the door down. He huffs and catches his breath before focusing on saving Laurel. 

“Okay, I can do this.” She says, trying to calm herself as she makes it to the edge. For Sisa, she hops all the way down, landing on her feet like the cat she is. “At least you’ll be safe Sisa.” She didn’t know if she wanted to jump and fall down a couple feet to the ground, it could break a leg. So instead she looks to her right to find a drain pipe, the best way to get down. “Sweet.” She grabs hold of it and climbs down. 

“Laurel!?” Arthur calls out, watching the flames bursting out of the door and windows. He thinks that she and her cat are still in there, being burned alive. “Can you hear me!?”

“Arthur! I’m over here!” She says, making it all the way down. Arthur hears her voice and runs to the side of the house to find her backing away from the drain pipe. “Oh thank god.” She says before the two hugged. “You’re alive.” 

“Me too.” Arthur says back. The house then exploded in flames, making the two jump and run away from the house. They went behind the car, with Sisa, and tried to calm themselves down. 

Laurel was shaking in fear, her hands wouldn’t stay still. “What was that?” She asks, still having the golden beams out of her hands in her mind. She breathes quickly in a panic. “Why did those beams come out of my hands!?” 

“Laurel, listen.” Arthur puts his hands on hers.

“No! I almost killed the both of us because of that! I’m inhuman!” 

“That’s enough!” Arthur shouts at her, keeping her silent. “Laurel, you are not inhuman. Whatever that happened back there was my fault. I kicked that desk and it caused all of that to happen.” She was crying from fear and pain. Arthur wasn’t certain that she was normal, but it was a secret the two needed to find out. “I’m sorry.” 

“Please don’t be.” Laurel weeps. “I was a fool to go back to that place. If I knew what was going to happen.” 

“If you weren’t here, I would have died.” He was lucky that Laurel saved him for those strange powers Laurel has now. “Laurel, we are going to my uncle’s workshop.”

“What why?” She asks, not knowing what he was about to do. 

“Because I think we can help you, but you have to trust me.” He said, having one hand underneath hers and one on top. “Do you?”

Laurel looks at him in the eyes, wiping the tears off of her face. The woman had just been through alot and worries that things will get worse. Unless she trusted his word to help her. “Sure, I’ll follow you to your uncle’s workshop.” Arthur smiles and goes to the van. 

“Just stay behind me. It’s not that far.” So the two get into their cars and quickly drive away from the still burning house. Their clothes and skin were lightly burned with ash on them. As Arthur was driving, he still didn’t know what to think of first: Laurel’s supernatural power or that he was an experiment to a company that tested him with nanobots, the same ones that could have caused the cave incident a year ago.


	15. Apologies Never Accepted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Laurel go to Lance for help, but things don't work out well for them.

Sometimes Arthur wonders why he is going to piss everyone off after he starts his story with a ‘near experience death’. Not to mention all the promises he broke right after he left the house. The question was who was going to be more livid: Lance, Galahad, Lewis, Vivi, or Mystery. If he had to answer, it would be both Mystery and Galahad. Those two kitsunes act like overactive parents who won’t even let their pups go for a walk. Who knows what would happen if they were hostile. Could they bite and scratch him? He wishes not, not wanting to remember the cave incident when Mystery ripped his arm. 

He and Laurel park their cars right in front of his uncle’s workshop. “Just please don’t bring out your shotgun.” Arthur says as if Lance was there with him. The two get out of their cars and lock it. As he walks to Laurel, he says, “Just remember to stay calm. He can help.” 

“I know.” She says, taking quick deep breaths. “Is he like a supernaturalist?”

“No, but he’s seen some.” He smiles right before the two walk to the door. Sisa was right next to them.

Larural looks down at the cat and then back at Arthur. “Does he mind about my cat?”

“I’m not sure if he even has seen a cat.” He chuckles, getting the door for her and the cat. After entering the building, he looks around to find his uncle. He wasn’t in the lobby so he walks to the office door and knocks three times. “Uncle Lance?” There was no answer after. Five seconds later, he hears a wrench dropping in the workshop area along with some cursing, Lance’s cursing. “There he is.” He takes Laurel’s hand and walks to the workshop to find him working on the engine. 

“I swear if this doesn’t work out, I’ll-”

“Uncle Lance.” Arthur calls out, making Lance hit his head on the cover. It flinches the two including the cat.

“Ack!” Lance grunts, rubbing his head before looking to see his own nephew in the workshop. “Arthur!? What are you doing here!?” He practically shouts at him, knowing that he wasn’t allowed to be anywhere at the time. 

“We….came to see you.” He said, feeling a bit sorry for coming here. “We just need your help, that’s all.” 

“Help? Well, I’m not sure if I’m the right man to help with….whatever is going on.” Lance picks up the wrench from the ground and puts it in the toolbox. But then, his expression changed from calm to shock. He walks back to his spot and stares at the two. ‘Wait a minute, why are you covered in all of that soot?” Arthur and Laurel look at each other in embarrassment. “Is the house on fire, Arthur!?” 

“Actually, it’s more of an ‘a’ instead of ‘the’.” Arthur corrects him. 

Lance puts the tip of his finger right onto the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. “What did you do?”

“Umm, it’s a long story.” Arthur shows a weak smile, rubbing the back of his head with the mechanical arm. “Let’s talk in your office.”  
______________________________________________________________________________

The very long talk the three had wasn’t an unpleasant one. As a result, Lance slams his fist on the desk in anger. The pencils in the cup jump up while everything else moves an inch. “You went into a burning house!?” Lance shouts at Arthur, his blood boiled. 

“Technically, we were inside the house before it burned.” Arthur corrects him again. 

“It was still on fire Arthur! What were you thinking!?” 

The only thing Arthur could think of is how he lied to everyone about staying at home, manipulating Galahad to head to the workshop instead of staying at home. But he was desperate to find answers and wasn’t wanting to wait for days. “Uncle, I just….wanted to help. I’m the one who had the headache. It’s my responsibility to find out why and how.” 

Lance glares at his nephew in flames, as if he could do worse. He shut his eyes tightly and looked down. His hands gripped strongly, not to cause any damage to himself or anything else. “How did the fire start?” He asks. Laurel felt nervous upon answering that question, the same way with Arthur. “How!?” He raises his voice at the two for his impatience. 

“I did, Mr. Kingsmen.” Laurel spoke, confessing. The two looked at her as tears fell out of her eyes. “Something terrifying happened back at that house.” 

“Terrifying?” Lance questions more. “What did you do to set it on fire?” 

Laurel didn’t want to speak anymore, traumatized with her own emotions and guilt. “She has powers.” Arthur explains to him. 

“Powers?” He asks, concerned with that answer. “What powers?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it was….save Arthur.” She weeps. 

Lance sighs calmly, confused and puzzled by what the two were saying. “Mind showing me?” 

Laurel shakes her head in fear, not wanting to have another disaster. “I can’t.”

“Laurel, you won’t burn this place. We could do it in the junkyard if you want.” Lance assures her, trying to help with her power. This time, Laurel nods and doesn’t speak. So the three walk out of Lance’s office and outside from the lobby. Then walked all the way to the junkyard with tons of damaged and totaled cars everywhere. “Can you demonstrate your power over there?” He asks, pointing to a destroyed truck just in front of them, a few yards away. 

“I can try.” She takes deep breaths, which were broken from her stress and fear. Then points her hands to the direction of the truck, but nothing comes out. “I don’t understand. Why isn’t it working?” 

“What was it exactly?” Lance asks another question. 

“A golden laser that annihilated some debris.” Arthur says to him. “It looked strong to cut through metal.”

“I hope not.” Lance huffs. “I’m still not happy with the fact that you almost killed yourself for some info that the others told you not too.” 

“I’m sorry if I was trying to help. I wanted the truth and they would have taken days to find it.” He argues, defending himself. 

Laurel tries to focus on herself, thinking on how she got that golden beam out of her hands. But from how loud the two guys were shouting, she couldn’t focus well. Her mind wanted them to be quiet, yet she hates to interrupt people. Of course, being very annoyed with arguments isn’t something she’s used to. Laurel’s frustration was trying to make her lose control. “Enough!” She shouts as the golden beams shoot from her hands and are targeted to the broken truck, burning a hole through it. The three were in silence and shock after witnessing her powers. She then turns to the two. “See!?” 

Lance lets out an overwhelmed sigh, turning back to Arthur. “Let’s go back inside.” He said, walking back inside the building. Arthur and Laurel look at each other in worryness and follow Lance. Inside the workshop, Lance takes his time trying to gather his thoughts. Laurel finds a chair and sits on it and Sisa hops onto her lap. Arthur watches Laurel petting the cat and then looking back at his uncle. “Arthur, can I have a word with you in my office?” 

“Yeah.” He walks with Lance while Laurel stays in that chair. In the office, Lance stares at him, angrily. “If you want to say something, I won’t use it against you.” 

“I want to know everything. Why were you there, how Laurel got those powers, and how exactly aren’t you dead yet?” He said, demanding answers. 

“Like I said: I wanted to help and I don’t know where she got those powers. As for the dead part, I’m not sure.” 

“Well what about Laurel? Did you bring her for help?” 

“No, she was looking for her necklace. She lost it during her attack with Vivi and that mystery woman.” 

“Tell me you found something useful at that house instead of almost dying for no reason.” 

“In fact, I did.” Arthur goes through his pocket to take out the piece of paper he had read before. It was all folded up and he gave it to Lance for him to unfold. “You won’t believe what this is.”

“What is it?” He asks, unfolding it. He reads through it thoroughly, seeing the words experiment, nanobots, virus, these were words that Lance wasn’t expecting out of this sheet of paper Arthur gave to him. “What the? Arthur, where did you get this?”

“I found it under the desk. Someone wanted to hide this for a reason.” Arthur puts his hands in his pocket while Lance keeps reading it through.

“This has your birth certificate and all your health vitals.” The ones he focused on the most is where it reads about how it controls the human body and brain, but also has side effects like the turning of green skin. “This has to be some joke!” He accuses Arthur of a prank.

“What!? Why would I do all of this for a prank!? That piece of paper is real! Look at who made it!” He shouts in frustration and anger, pointing to the logo. 

“SynthCorp? Why does that name sound familiar?” Lance questions. He still couldn’t believe that Arthur was an experiment all of this time, not knowing all about it. But that would also mean that Arthur wasn’t possessed in that cave as Mystery told him. 

“I don’t know, but I’ll research some more later. I need to get home and-”

“Home!? After all you have gone through you are going home to research this!?” He shoves the paper back to him. “Have you lost your mind now!?” 

“As if I didn’t months ago when I went searching for Lewis!” He shouts back. “And guess what, I found him!” 

“Only for you to almost die!” 

“At least you weren’t the one who killed him in the first place!” That’s when Lance went silent after hearing how pissed Arthur was. “Just please, let me do what I need to do.” 

“I wish I could, but I also need to warn you about Galahad.” He said, going back to his chair to sit down. “He’s not in a good mood today.”

Arthur was surprised to realize that he had sent Galahad over to Lance so he could get to the house without anyone knowing. “Oh god, where is he?” He asks, worried about him. 

“Worry later, he’s with the others.” 

“To help them?” Arthur asks.

“No, he’s pissed at Mystery because I told him all about what happened at Shiromori’s camp.”

This really got confusing, Arthur thought that Mystery already told Galahad about that, why would he be mad now? “I don’t understand. He already knew, right?”

“It seems like Mystery forgot to tell him that you lost the will to live right before Shiromori almost killed you.” Lance leans back in the chair, his expression showing how much he regretted that. 

He was very terrified to learn that Galahad didn’t know that part before. Now what would Galahad do if he saw him in a different way? “Did you tell him?” Arthur asks him.

“Yeah, but how was I supposed to know that Galahad didn’t know you wanted to die?” Lance never knew the consequences of angering a kitsune who’s more powerful than any ghost or demon. “Once I told him that, he just went livid. I could hear him snarling and howling from the other room right before he left. I wanted him to stop, but I was afraid he might attack me by mistake.”

“That’s not good. Crap, Galahad is going to kill him.” Arthur says, feeling very scared at the moment.

“The both of you actually. I have to tell them about this.” 

“What why!?” 

“Arthur, if you were going to give them that paper, they are going to ask a lot of questions. Those you can’t lie about.” 

“I can.” He paces around the room, brainstorming a plan. With a snap of his fingers, he says, “I got it.” Lance looks at Arthur in his full attention. “I’ll go home, change my clothes, shower, and tell them that I researched and printed this.” 

Lance chuckles, hearing how ridiculous his plan was. “Do you really think that you can fool a ghost, a samurai, and two wise kitsunes? They can tell when you are lying or not.” 

Arthur groans, knowing how true that sounds. “You know what, tell them. I’ll be at home doing more research.”

“Alright, but just be careful of Galahad, he’s looking out to rip your other arm.” He says, getting up from his chair. “Arthur, if I were you. I would have laid it to rest and let them handle it.”

“But you aren’t me and I’m not giving up.” Arthur folds the paper up and puts it in his pocket. “I’m going to talk to Laurel.” He heads out of his office and shuts the door behind him. Arthur couldn’t think of a good reason why he should just leave the state and start his own adventure. He doesn’t have enough money nor a plan to go on with it. In the workshop, he finds Laurel on the chair still. “Hey, I’m heading home. Do you want to talk about your powers more?”

Laurel looks at him, saddened and despaired. “I don’t know. To think that I’m probably the only one in this world to have this special power. How would Vivi feel about this?”

“I think Vivi would be surprised. Trust me, she’s the kind of person who loves solving mysteries. Maybe you should talk to her about this.” He says, helping her out.

“I wish, but I’m scared that she’ll see me differently. We’ve been friends since high school and something like this can change our friendship.” 

“No, I think it makes it stronger. Like I said, trust me. She’ll even help you control it.” This brought Laurel smiling again.

“I guess you are right.” She stands up from the chair, Sisa hopping down, and hugging Arthur. “Thank you for supporting me.”

“Anything for you Laurel.” He said as they let of each other. 

“I’ll call Vivi and tell her to meet me at the park. What about you?”

“I got to head home. Do some more research on this company, SynthCorp.” He pats his pocket with the paper inside. “I’m just glad that we made it out of that house.”

“I’m still sorry for putting us through it.”

“Don’t be. You save me from that falling debris, I would have died either way.” He says, blaming himself for that. “I’ll see you later. Remember, Vivi will be glad to hear about your powers.” Arthur then leaves through the garage door and goes to the van. He watches as Laurel gets on the phone, talking to someone. Vivi, perhaps. He starts the van and begins to drive off.   
______________________________________________________________________________

It took him thirty minutes to drive from the workshop to his house. It was long, but for him it felt quick. In his driveway, he gets out of the van and uses his key to unlock the door. Arthur was still afraid of how they were going to react to this news, but most likely what they would do to him. It was Mystery’s idea that he should stay at home, so he might do worse. But on the other hand, Galahad was going to be a lot more angrier than Mystery after hearing the news from Lance. The question was who was going to him first? Not that they won’t race each other to him. Inside his house, he puts his keys in a wooden bowl on a desk next to the front door and walks around the house to see if anyone is home. Arthur finds no one and doesn't sound like anyone wasn’t here. With a nice relaxed sigh, he walks across the living room and to the hall where it connects the bedrooms and bath. As he was about to take out that paper again, a sudden force tackled him down on the floor. Arthur winces at a sharp pain up his back, then silent after looking into the eyes of the angry and snarling kitsune, Galahad. His paw was right on his chest, strongly pinning him down with the other right next to his head. His tails directly pointed at him as a sign of hostility. “Galahad?”

“What were you thinking!?” He raises his voice at him, snarling lividly. 

“Galahad wait, I can expli-” 

“Of course you are going to explain! Lance told me what you did and I trusted you!” He didn’t loosen his grip nor stepped away from his face. “You said that you’ll stay home when I was going to him! Give me ten seconds why I shouldn’t rip your heart out!” 

Very frightening for Arthur to hear how threatening Galahad was being. This must be the first time the kitsune has ever told him that he’ll kill him, and Arthur. actually believed that. “I wanted to help and I decided to lie to you so I could go to that house to find answers.” As he said that, it looked like Galahad was holding back to maul him from him showing his teeth and shutting his eyes. A few seconds later, he gets his paw off of Arthur and backs away from him. Arthur quickly stands up, not going back nor forward. “I’m really sorry Galahad, I-” Again, Galahad lunges at him and this time he uses his front paw to scratch Arthur’s right arm. “Ack!” He shouts in pain. “Why did you do that!?” 

“Because you are foolish and weak Arthur! I knew everything you did before!” He sounded like he was about to cry, but held it in real good. “ But you never told me that you lost the will to live! I almost attacked Mystery because of that!”

“And that’s my fault!? What was I gonna say, that I wanted to tell my own mutt that I wanted to die!?” This offended Galahad so much that he uses his tail to deactivate and pull Arthur's robotic arm off of him and carries him by the collar of his vest with his teeth to his room. “Let go of me!” He demands, furiously.

Galahad tosses him into his room, shutting it and blocking the doorway. “It was worthless protecting someone who can’t even save himself! He yells, making Arthur feel a little terrible of himself. Without his other arm, he wasn’t able to easily heal his wound besides using his sheets to wrap it up like a big bandage. “Do you even hear yourself!? I thought you would be something good, but you’re nothing but a liar!” 

“That’s not true!” He screams from the other side of the door. 

“Is it!? All you ever did was get yourself in danger! It’s pathetic!” Galahad lashes all of his anger at Arthur. Never in his life he hated Arthur this much, it was like he was there at the Human and Kitsune War. The one who made his life miserable. “Next time, try to be smart in your actions.”

This made Arthur slam the door multiple times in anger, hard enough to get Galahad’s attention. “I am smart! You’re just too scared to let me go!” He says back, finally crying. Arthur goes down on the floor in a sitting position with his knees covering his face and his one arm wrapped around his legs. “Why?” He keeps asking as if Galahad were to answer that. 

Galahad huffs deeply, trying to calm himself as he decides to walk back to the living room. He lays on the floor, planning to wait for the others to get here so they could talk to Arthur since he wasn’t in the mood to have a conversation with him. If anything, he should be the one to apologize for letting Arthur do these things. It was his fault that he trusted too much out of that young adult and was manipulated to leave him alone. And all of that anger led to him going back to Arthur, only for him to scratch. They were both lucky that he didn’t rip off his other arm.


	16. Now They Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things do not end up well at Lewis's mansion and Arthur's house and they have two things in common: Kitsune Fights.

There were times when everyone wasn’t doing well with their day. With Vivi, Lewis, Mystery, and Jax trying to figure out about why Arthur was having that deadly headache. The four were at Lewis’s mansion, his large bedroom to be exact, having a conversation about what they have so far. “If I’m right, this photo was made in 2002, the year Arthur was born.” Vivi says, holding onto the picture of Arthur and his family. Yesterday after Arthur got back from the hospital, Vivi asked him to take the photo so she could do some research with it. Although he refused many times, he knew that it would be for the best to let them do the work. Vivi wasn’t proud of what had to be done and she promises him that she and the others will find an answer. She was on the bed with Lewis, in his ghost form, who was also looking at the picture. Mystery was on the floor, relaxing with Jax wrapping himself with one of his tails. 

“Yeah, eighteen years ago.” Lewis agrees with her. “They look like a nice couple. I feel sorry for Arthur to lose his parents. Just like how I lost mine.” He said, disappointedly. As a child, he never got a chance to see his real parents, not even knowing if they are alive or not. “What were their jobs?”

“Well, let’s see…” She pulls up her laptop. “I called the Nebraska state police and told me that his father worked as a lab assistant for a company with SynthCorp and his mother just stayed home with Arthur. “I also researched with this company and all they do is make robotic engineering inventions and weaponry. Sounds like a job Arthur could love.” She said with a chuckle.

“Hmm, do you think a government job like that could be a reason for their deaths?” Lewis was starting to get theories, making a whole list of them. 

“Maybe, but we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions yet before we know what we’re dealing with.” Vivi closes her laptop, putting it away on the side. “Do you think that Arthur just has this curse of being in danger all the time, even if we are the ones who cause it?” 

Lewis sighs deeply for a moment, giving some time to think. “If that’s the case then I don’t think so. I put him in that situation in the first place.”

“Even with Shiromori?” Vivi holds his hand, looking up to him.

“That will be my fault.” Mystery spoke up, looking at the two. “I still should have known that she’ll follow and attack us.” 

“Not to mention that Arthur has your blood type now.” Vivi said back, smiling right at him.

“Don’t remind me that, Galahad was pissed when I told him. He’ll never forgive me for that, and ripping his arm off of course.” Mystery then looks over at Jax, still wrapped in his tails. “I see that you’re a fan of fluffy things.” 

“I just couldn’t help it, mister big fluffy fox. It’s very soft and cuddly.” Jax says, all snuggled up.

“For the last time Jax, my name is Mystery and I’m a kitsune.” This got both Vivi and Lewis laughing while Mystery rolled his eyes with a nice smile on his face. “Laugh it all up you two. In a few minutes, I’m going to show you how I give bear hugs.” 

“Since when can you give people hugs?” Vivi asks, doubting it.

“Oh, is that a challenge I hear?” He sits up, holding out his arms with his tails aiming right at Vivi. “Come here and I’ll show you.” 

Of course that was interrupted by Vivi’s phone vibrating. “Huh?” She takes it out of her pocket and turns it on. “It’s a message from Lance.” She goes to her messages and reads what Lance texted her. [Bad news, Galahad is angry and coming your way. He’s gonna attack Mystery.] “Uh oh.” 

“What’s wrong.” Lewis asks, concerned about what Vivi had just read. 

“Well Galahad is coming over.” 

“That doesn’t seem too bad.” Lewis thought it was normal.

“Yeah, but he’s mad at Mystery and wants to kill him.” Vivi finishes her sentence. Mystery stood up quickly, wide eyed and shocked.

“What, why?” Mystery asks, wanting to know why Galahad was coming to Lewis’s mansion. 

“I don’t know. We’ll have to wait until he gets here for an answer.” Mystery scoffs and paces around, brainstorming for something. “I have to make sure you don’t get mauled to death if he’s that pissed.” 

“What exactly did you do?” Lewis asks.

“Ask me what I didn’t do.” Mystery tells him, still pacing around nervously. “I swear, if this is about Arthur, Galahad better not harm him.” 

“What makes you think that other kitsune will hurt Arthur?” Jax asks, flying up to his face.

“I have a feeling Jax and I’m not liking it.” Mystery lets out a low growl, imagine what Galahad will do to Arthur for some reason. “Do you mind if me and him have some roughhousing in this mansion?” He turns to Lewis. 

“I….hope you aren’t planning on killing him.” Lewis worries about that question.

“What part of roughhousing do you think I’m talking about?” Mystery says back. 

“The dangerous part. I’ve seen it before on wrestling shows with Lance and Arthur.” Vivi speaks up, getting out of the bed and walking towards Mystery where she gives him a scratch behind the ear. “We were there to stop you from fighting, but I have to admit that I might not stop you now.” 

“Then I hope you’re prepared to see some kitsune fights.” He gave out this smirk which worried Vivi a lot. 

A few seconds later, the doors below them slam open loudly with an angry howl. “Where are you mutt!?” Galahad shouts from the front entrance, his tone sounds murderous and livid.”I’m gonna kill you!” 

They all looked at each other, some shocked while others impressed to hear Galahad this mad. “I’ll go talk to him.” Vivi said, having Mystery’s back.

“Oh no, the last thing I do in my life is letting that kitsune maul one of my pups.” The white and black furred kitsune stood in her way, not even daring to let her out of the room. “You guys stay here while I’ll deal with him.” And so he goes out the room, shutting the door behinding him with one of his tails.

“We should follow him to make sure he doesn’t acutally die or commit murder.” Vivi suggests, following him. Lewis and Jax also go with Vivi to make sure Mystery and Galahad play safe. 

Mystery walks down the stairs, seeing Galahad glaring up at him and growling. His teeth, sharp as blades, were shown to him. “Galahad, what are you doing here?” He asks, sounding very concerned with the other kitsune.

“I’m here to rip your guts out you liar!” Galahad lashes out at him, threatening Mystery. 

“Liar? I’m an honest kitsune, I just keep secrets.” Mystery corrects him, going down the rest of the steps. The others stayed at the top, watching the two kitsunes barking at each other. “What is it you think I’m lying about?” He gets close to his face, a bad idea since Galahad pounces on him. The angry kitsune pins Mystery right to the ground, snarling him his face. “Get off!”

“You said that he’ll be fine!” Galahad furiously screams at him, wanting to maul on his exposed neck. “You said that Arthur will be happy!” Vivi was scared to death watching Galahad losing control and attacking Mystery. 

“He is, isn’t he!?” Mystery shouts back, getting Galahad off of him and quickly standing up. “I told you that he’s safe!” 

“Then why did you leave out the part that he lost his will to live!?” The others froze except Mystery as he knew that really happened. He never did tell him about Arthur being suicidal, even after he was saved. “I could have helped him all of this time! He could have been more opened to me if I knew the truth. But you had to keep this away from me, why!?” He demands an answer, echoing the halls with his screeching. 

Mystery wasn’t sure what to do, if he said it both ways, Galahad would surely attack him. “I…..don’t know.” 

“What do you mean you don’t know!?” His anger starts to rise. “You mutt! You…..cold hearted fox! You wanted him to die didn’t you!?” 

“Of course not!” The accusations were enough to start getting onto Galahad. Trying to make sure to be even with him. “I’m not sure what you are thinking about, but I love Arthur and so do you. So why don’t you go back to his house and tell him that you love him? Unless you never really told him that before and you never cared about him?” Those words broke Galalahd to the point where he starts tackling him to the ground, biting and scratching his body as Mystery does the same like wild dogs. They rolled around, pinning each other down with barks and snarls.

“Guys stop!” Vivi shouts, rushing down the stairs to try to break up the fight. Lewis and Jax follow right behind her, doing the same thing. Vivi went onto Mystery, pulling his collar backward, trying to get him off while Lewis drags Galahad back as the kitsune squirms around. “We are not going to kill each other!” Vivi grunts, still struggling to get Mystery back. 

“Let go of me Lewis!” Galahad demands, wiggling around. “I’ll rip his head off!” 

“No Galahad, you’ve done enough to get all of us involved!” Lewis says, gripping onto Galahad’s neck while holding him back. “Arthur’s lucky that he isn’t here to witness this.” Lewis’s hands and arms were covered in blood from the scratches and bites Mystery gave him, the same thing for Vivi as Mystery was covered in more scratches and bites than Galahad. 

“Arthur lost his will to live because of that dumb mutt! He shouldn’t even be breathing at the moment!” His threatening was getting harsh and darker, most likely for the anger Mystery caused. “I love him and it’s my responsibility to make sure that he’s safe.” 

“If you’re trying to keep him safe, what are you doing here?” Mystery says back only for Vivi to grip her hand around his snout, shutting him up. He responses with a glare right at her.

“Like I said, I was going to kill you for not telling me he lost his will to live.” He then jerks his body, making Lewis letting go of him at last. Vivi still holds on to Mystery’s collar and gets in front of him in case Galahad was going to charge at him again. “But then, it was Arthur who suggested that I should head over to Lance to see if he needs any help.” Everyone stared at him as if it was a bad thing, which it was. “What? I trust Arthur that he can handle it on his own. Even with the promise he made to us.”

“If you say so.” Vivi said, being watchful of Mystery. “We should bandage you two up.”

“No need. These scratches are nothing to me.” Mystery refuses, just like how Arthur would if he were hurt. 

“Mystery, I don’t want you to bleed out. At least let me wrap you in some bandages.” Vivi insists, grabbing his collar to the bathroom where Lewis keeps his special medical kits for his friends. 

“Alright then, you know that Arthur would have refused for your help if he were hurt.” 

“And that’s why I trust you to make sure he gets taken care of, forcefully.” This made Mystery chuckle as Vivi takes out the medical kit and starts wrapping the bandages on Mystery’s neck, side, front leg, and belly. “Wow, Galahad really went for your neck.” 

“It’s not like he can rip it out, it’s very thick.” 

“Thick as in muscle or fat? Because I can see the second one very clearly.” She jokes as Mystery rolls his eyes. “Hey don’t look at me like that, I’ve seen your calorie intake.” 

“Oh yeah? Speaking from experience Vivi?” Mystery hisses back. 

She scoffs, thinking on how ridiculous that sounded. “At least I go to the gym fatty.” 

“Hey, I’m not fat!” He shouts at her in annoyance. 

“Oh really? What’s this?” She said, poking at Mystery’s belly which indeed has some fat to it along with his neck and sides as if he was becoming one of those obese dogs who do nothing but lay there and eat. “I have a theory that now Shiromori is gone, you just had to let go didn’t you? You were hiding from her because not for your blood, but because you didn’t want her to see you like a fat and immoblie fox instead of some imaginary six pack and those so called muscles you wished you had.”

“Shut up.” He said, growling right at her. 

“So it is true then? I knew it!” She begins to celebrate.

“Vivi? Is everything alright in there?” Lewis asks, calling from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, Mystery was telling me how he’s starting to gain weight.” She shouts from the other side. “Might warn you that his butt could get stuck in the doorway soon.” Of course she couldn’t help but to snicker, making Mystery angry. 

“Vivi I swear, you’re lucky that I’m not allowed to eat humans.” He warns her as if he were about to do it. Vivi was curious to know where Mystery got that from.

“Then I guess I shouldn’t push your buttons then.” She pats his stomach one last time before opening the door. “How’s Galahad holding up?” She asks Lewis who was in front of her.

“He won’t talk to me nor Jax.” Right behind him, they could see Galahad sitting on the floor, looking down as if he was ashamed of himself in some way while Jax was petting his side with his tiny arm. 

“Are you mad now?” Jax asks, still petting him.

“As if I wasn’t mad minutes ago. Do you mind giving me some privacy?” He turns to Jax, very annoyed with the caring deadbeat.

“Sorry, I was trying to help Galahad.” The deadbeat flies over to Lewis, hovering right next to his shoulder. “He still doesn’t want to talk to us.”

“Figures.” Lewis said with a disappointed sigh. “All this time, I never knew Arthur was suicidal.” He turns to Mystery who walks out of the bathroom with Vivi. “How come you never told us about that?” 

“Because if I did, you would have blamed yourself for it.” He answers in the most bluntly way possible. “I know you Lewis Pepper and it’s not going to be pretty.” 

“Well he’s not alone, Mystery. I would have blamed myself too.” Vivi supports Lewis. “I was the one who didn’t believe him that Lewis was.....well here.” 

“Vivi please, I don’t want you two to have this conversation like I had with Arthur. The poor kid went through a lot over these past weeks and his emotions were on the breakthrough. Luckily I was his therapist for those days.” 

“All we are just saying is that you could have told us the truth.” At that moment, Lewis takes a deep huff while looking at Vivi nervously. “And I think it’s time to tell you the truth too.”

“Lewis, wait.” Vivi stops him. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea to tell him.” 

“Tell me what?” Mystery asks, wanting to hear what Lewis has to say. 

“Vivi, he’ll find out soon enough. He’s wise to learn secrets.” He puts his hands on Vivi’s arms, staring directly into her eyes with his ghost like pupils. “If we don’t, we could regret it.” 

Vivi understood what he meant, yet she felt afraid of something else. Maybe it was the thought of a friendship about to be broken or that it was going to be a painful experience for not only Mystery, but for Arthur and Lance if they found out. “Alright, just say it.”

He lets go of Vivi and turns to Mystery. They’ve been friends ever since high school when he went to Vivi’s house. It was the day where he played with the small dog, giving him head pats and belly rubs. That’s how he gained the disguised kitsune’s trust. So what happened in the past can stay in the past; but for the future, anything can happen. “Me and Vivi were thinking about letting me rest in peace.” 

Mystery droops his head down, looking at the ground. “You mean being gone forever?” 

“Yeah, we thought that-”

“Please spare me the details. I know enough.” He interrupts Vivi, sounding angry at the two as if they had betrayed him. “How long did you keep this?” He asks, looking right at them. Even Galahad was paying attention to this, and he didn’t know Lewis well. 

“For weeks.” Lewis crosses his arms in shame while Mystery lets out a low growl. “Hey, you hid Arthur being suicidal from us and we weren’t pissed.” 

“I know!” He raises his voice at him. “I can’t believe that after all that we did, you were planning on being gone forever.”

“It has to be done Mystery, I know he’s my boyfriend but-”

“But what about Arthur, Vivi? He’ll go back into the darkness I tried so hard to get him out of.” He didn’t want that to happen again, not on Arthur nor anyone else's life. “Listen, let’s just talk this out and think about it.”

“I don’t want to think about it Mystery, I want it done!” Lewis was getting his anger boiling in the heat. Impatient and willing, he knows the consequences behind it. “I’ll talk to Arthur about it. He’ll understand the truth and we can get it all behind us.”

“If what you are saying about this is true…” Galahad says, walking to them. “Then why is it taking you so long to do it?”

“Galahad, if you start this all over again I’ll-” Mystery growls at him before one of Galahad’s tails wraps around his snout like Vivi did. 

“Mind if you let them answer instead of you interrupting?” He glares at him before unwrapping his snout. 

“Well, we’ve been studying about ghosts in the library weeks ago. Lewis and I found out that he’s a revenge ghost, someone who desires to finish the job before they pass away. Our guess was that Arthur could have been the mission Lewis was after.”

“But then I found out that Arthur was innocent from what you’ve told me. So we thought it was something else that…..” He pauses himself, having a lightbulb moment in his head. “Wait a minute. What about his arm?”

They all turned to Lewis, listening to his theory. “The one that pushed him off. Of course, why didn’t I see that before?” Mystery said, surprised. “I threw that arm into the spikes during the cave incident. It was alive at the moment.” He began to pace around, trying to remember that night. “If I can recall, that demon must still be there after a whole year.”

“So we find the arm and destroy it for good?” Vivi asks, thinking that’s the plan.

“Exactly. But of course if we are planning on telling Arthur about this, he might want to come with us.” 

“Absolutely not!” Galahad refuses that idea. “I’m not letting any of you get my pup into this sort of mess.”

“Your pup? Since when did you start calling Arthur your pup instead of my pup?” Mystery gets up close to his face.

“Because I’m the closest thing he has to a harmless kitsune.” He uses his tails to smack Mystery in the snout, making him flinch and moving back. “So are we clear on not bringing Arthur to that cave?”

“We’ll think about it.” Vivi says, turning to Lewis to grab his hand. “If we are planning to do this, your family needs to know your secret.” 

“I don’t know if I can. My family will never be the same after this.” He worries. “Hopefully they’ll take my death very….let’s say not depressedly.”

“Yeah, those cute girls will be so miserable if they learned that you're a ghost.” Vivi hugs closely to his chest, hearing the thump of the golden locket. “So let’s go into that cave and find Arthur’s arm.” Of course that was interrupted by a phone call from Vivi’s phone. “She pulls it out and looks at who’s calling her. “It’s Lance.” She picks it up. “Yeah?”

As she was on the phone, Galahad sits down next to Mystery looking over at his body. “Vivi was right, you are putting on some pounds.” He chuckles as Mystery turns his head towards him before looking down at his little thickness of his belly. “Shame that they don’t have a gym for kitsunes.”

“In a few years, you’ll be fat too. Let’s hope that you won’t end up as the obese one.” Mystery chuckles back at him. “For me, I don’t mind if I put on some weight. Though I will regret Vivi’s fat jokes if I gain any more weight.” 

“Ok, thank you. I’ll talk to him.” She says before hanging up the phone. “Holy crap!” She shouts in frustration. 

“Vivi, what’s wrong?” Lewis asks, worried about what Vivi is going through.

“It’s Arthur. He lied to us!” 

“What did he do?” Galahad asks, demanding an answer.

“I told you, he lied to us.” 

“What did he do!?” Galahad was getting angrier every time Vivi said the word lied. 

“He went to that abandoned house and almost died. There was a fire and-” Galahad didn’t give Vivi the chance to finish her sentence as he rushed out the door. “Galahad, wait.”

“I got this.” Mystery groans, following the other kitsune. “Galahad, come back here!” He makes it outside where he finds Galahad at the front gate entrance. “Arthur probably had a good explanation for that.”

“I don’t care if he had an explanation! He lied to us! To me! Arthur is going to pay for that!” And so he runs across the street and through the dead woods in which were going to lead Galahad back to the Kingsmen’s residence. 

“Great.” Before he went after him, he took one last look at his chubby body and sighs. “Time for some exercise.” And so he begins to run, but much more slower than he would have expected.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Upon making it to Arthur’s house, Mystery takes his time to catch his breath. It’s been a long time since he actually ran or went on an actual walk. Of course he won’t know if he’ll be back in shape or if Arthur is actually alive inside the house. Hopefully he wishes that Arthur is. He uses his tail to open the backdoor which was unlocked, entering the house and into the kitchen. Walking around, he gets a shocking smell of blood. It was a kitsune’s blood mixed with human blood. It can only mean two things, that there was a fight or that Arthur is bleeding. Mystery knows well that Arthur never fights or tries to kill someone on purpose. In a deep rush of anger and fear, Mystery runs through the house, trying to find Galahad. 

He sniffs two trails of Arthur’s blood in the bedroom and the other one in the basement. The bedroom was much higher meaning that Arthur was in there. He goes over to the door and tries to turn it, only for it to be locked. As for the basement, he knows exactly what that meant. The kitsune runs down the stairs, finding Galahad pacing around the room. “What have you done!?” He shouts with hostility in his voice. 

Galahad jerks his head towards him, his expression showing regret and sadness. “It was an accident. I swear.” 

Mystery couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A kitsune who called himself harmless had traces of Arthur’s blood on his front paw which had sharp nails. “An accident!? Why do I find that hard to believe!?” Galahad whines, looking away from Mystery. “Did you kill him!?” If in any way Galahad says yes, he was dead to him. 

“No, I just scratched his arm, that’s all. I lost control.” Mystery was relieved that Arthur was alive, but not happy to hear that Arthur is hurt. “But he deserved it.” And then there’s that where Mystery loses control too and pounces on Galahad, the same way he did it to him. His sharp claws were right on Galahad’s neck, ready to be torn out by a slice. 

“You have officially made it to the point where I should rip your head off! I told you that he could have an explanation for that!” His grip gets tighter.

“He did! If you want to hear one, ask that liar!” Mystery’s eyes were sharp like daggers, livid for his eyes to glow red with fear in Galahad’s eyes. The brown kitsune felt like he only had a few seconds to live before Mystery could destroy him from existence. Instead, Mystery lets go of him and steps back, still glaring at him with anger. “Look, he lied to us Mystery. You would have done the same thing if you were in my position.” 

“Maybe, but I would never scratch him right after ripping his arm a year ago. That’s not how I treat people now. It should have been you who would do the same thing in my position.” Mystery’s eyes went back to normal as he went upstairs to check on Arthur. Galahad was left in the basement alone, ashamed and weeping. If Mystery was right, maybe he was the one who was bringing Arthur danger from when he revealed himself to them. 

Up in Arthur’s room, the human sits on the end of his bed. His bleeding finally stopped with the bed sheets as he started thinking of his mistakes. He regrets everything that he did today and now was wondering if he deserved it all. He also heard the fight downstairs and everything they said. Arthur blames himself for all of that. “Arthur, are you in there?” Mystery asks from the other side, knocking on the door with his front paw.

“Go away Mystery, it was my fault.” He said, not wanting to talk to anyone. 

“I just want to talk, that’s all. Please open the door.” He begs, knocking on the door again. Arthur knows that Mystery will never stop on these occasions. He would stay there 24/7 until anyone comes out and talks to him, or keep them close until he feels the need to start a conversation. So without any choice, he unlocks and opens the door, looking right up at him. “Thank you.” He said with a nod, entering his room. “I wish it didn’t have to come to this Arthur.” 

Arthur shuts the door and walks back to the end of his bed, sitting on it. But Mystery wasn’t going to be easy on him. The giant fox grabs the bed sheets from him, pulling him right to his fluffy chest before making Arthur sit down with him. “I just wanted to help.” He said, leaning his head on Mystery’s side. 

“What you did was dishonest. You lied and almost got yourself killed. Just be lucky I wasn’t the one who attacked you.” 

Arthur jerks his head up to Mystery who looks at him with disappointment in his face. “You would have killed me?”

“Of course not. More like sitting on you, it’ll be a lot worse than some scratches.” To his curiousness, he unwraps the bloody bed sheets from Arthur’s wounded arm to see the damage Galahad had done to him. It was a deep cut, but not too deep for his arm to be useless. This made Mystery growl lowly again, feeling the need to howl in anger. 

“Mystery, please don’t. Galahad was just doing what he needed to do.” That was interrupted with another growl, a much louder and deeper one.

“He was never allowed to harm you. I would have killed him if he did much worse.” He wraps one of his tails around Arthur’s wound with the others on Arthur. “But I’m still mad that you lied to all of us. I should have been the one to watch over you. Never in a million chances have I agreed to go with Lance in the workshop just to get you alone.”

“I was too curious to do my own work. But…..” He really wanted to speak out more, tell him the truth on what he had found. The piece of paper that was still in his pocket. 

“But what?” Mystery asks, wanting Arthur to speak more. 

“It’s not important.” He decided not to tell.

“Arthur.” He turns Arthur’s head towards him. “It’s best if you tell me. I’ll keep it a secret.” 

“What if I don’t want to tell you?” 

“Then I guess I have to find out myself.” He stood up, with Arthur sitting back up. “I hope you don’t mind if I check your computer. Vivi taught me everything about the internet.” 

Arthur was starting to regret his decision because of a kitsune who knows how to work a computer. “Okay wait! But you won’t like it.” He stands up and starts grabbing the piece of paper from his pocket. “It’s my birth certificate and some weird test measurements from a company named SynthCorp.” The name was giving him some ringing in his ears as Vivi explained the company back at Lewis’s mansion. 

“Let me see it.” He said, taking the paper away from Arthur and reading it himself. From each word he read, his eyes and mouth were starting to look worried and scared. Even his tails weren’t reacting right to this. “This can’t be real.” He quietly says to himself before looking back at Arthur with a shocked reaction. “What have I done?” 

“Mystery, I didn’t know either.” Arthur goes up to him, taking the paper away from him. “It still means that I was being controlled.” 

“Not by a demon.” He starts off with a huff. “Arthur, I’m so sorry. I thought that it was a demon instead of those….microbites or something.” He wasn’t that smart in technology as he was just only a kitsune. 

“Nanobots.” Arthur corrects him. “I still need to know why SynthCorp injected me with nanobots and why force me to kill Lewis.” 

“I agree, but not in the way you're thinking.” Mystery nudges him back on the ground, laying down with him. “Let’s wait until everything is settled. I still want to talk to Galahad about his actions.” 

“Please don’t go too harsh on him.” Arthur requests, begging him not to.

“I have no idea what is going on in your head Arthur, but if you are being passive towards your attackers, I think I should be by your side forever.” Mystery said, making Arthur tilt his head and scoff. “And I don’t think of this as a joke too.” 

“Sorry, I never liked being aggressive.” He apologizes with a smile. At least he was smiling, Mystery thought to himself. “Maybe having you and Galahad around can really make things better.”

“I thought so, just make sure to stay with us next time instead of going off on your own.” Mystery gave back a smile, licking his head. 

“Thanks.” He leans back onto Mystery’s side, feeling how soft it was. “Say, why do you think sitting on me is way worse than a deeply wounded scratch?”

Mystery laughs as a response to his question. “I thought you never asked. As you have noticed, I’ve gained some weight, or as Vivi told me.” 

“Yeah, I can see some fat here.” He pokes his soft side. 

“Well, just be lucky I don’t eat a full meal six times a day or you’ll be flattened.” Arthur laughs out loud, making Mystery feel very calm. 

“How many meals do you eat a day?” Arthur asks again.

“Hmm, five meals a day. If I do six, I wouldn’t be here.” He answers, poking at his stomach. “I do have to warn you that Vivi will make a lot of fat jokes if I do keep that up.” 

“Then I promise to take you out for walks as exercise.” 

“It’s a promise I’ll have to accept.” Mystery lays his head down while resting his eyes. “But I wouldn’t mind for some fat, it’ll make a nice bed for you and my other pups.” 

“If you say so chubby boy.” He jokes as the kitsune scoffs from that. Arthur never knew that Mystery could raise his spirits by just a conversation. It almost made him forget why he was here in the first place. He still thinks of what really happened when he was a baby, the real reason why he had to move, and why his parents are dead. The problem is will they let him continue or stop him from doing so?


	17. Training the Goddess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurel tells Vivi the truth and in return helps practice using her powers right. Meanwhile, The Snow Fox follows Vivi and has a "nice" talk with her grandmother.

The park is one of the most beautiful places in the world Laurel loves to be at. As a child, her grandfather was the one who took her to a park everyday before he died. A memory that she wishes will stay with her until death. She and her feline Sisa sit on a bench, looking around for her best friend Vivi as an hour ago she called her on the phone to meet her here. Her fingers tap on her lap impatiently as she was nervous with the people around her. Laurel still had these thoughts about that mysterious woman from the attack. Hopefully her gun in her holster will keep her safe. She checks her phone every minute to see if Vivi had or was texting her about anything. She even thought about calling her to see if she was at the park or not. Although it was strange for a park to be in a desert in Texas, maybe thinking that it was grown by society. “There you are.” Laurel turns around to find Vivi walking up towards the bench before sitting down right next to her. “You sounded nervous on the phone, is everything alright?” 

Laurel was sweating nervously, not knowing how to explain her powers to her own best friend who she hasn’t met in years. It’s a difficult time for her to not only confess about her specialty, but the fact that she almost got her and Arthur killed. “....No, I’m having a tough time right now.” She said, a little depressed.

“Oh, do you want to talk about it?” Vivi asks, comforting her. She was very concerned about what was going on with her best friend. It wasn’t like she was going to humiliate her for something that should’ve been dealt with instead of making it worse. 

“Let’s talk about it in my car.” Laurel suggests, standing up and carrying Sisa at the same time. “I just don’t feel safe talking about this right here.” Vivi stands up too, walking with Laurel. 

“If it makes you feel better, I promise not to tell anyone about this.” Vivi insists, doing whatever she can to help her out.

“It may be too late for that.” Laurel looks at her, still sad and miserable. At her car, she unlocks and gets on the driver’s side while Sisa hops into the back. She then unlocks the passenger side of the car to let Vivi inside. “Look, I just want to get it off of my chest and I know you are hoping for some way to solve this. I just wish that it really didn’t happen in the first place.” 

“Tell me from the beginning. I’ll listen to every word you say.” Vivi acts like her therapist as Laurel begins to explain what happened a few hours ago. She describes where she went, when, and why. Even including Arthur into the mix. 

As that was going on inside her car, what they didn’t know was about the second car. It wasn’t far from where they were but not too close for them to notice. A clean silver car that’s parked on the other side of the road from where the girls are at, facing them. The person inside the car was none other than the woman with the grudge, the Snow Fox. She started to spy on them, watching the two talk to each other inside the car she had stolen a few hours ago at a shop not near from where she was. One was in a desperate expression while that other looked concerned and worried, or Vivi as she knew who she was. “You can’t hide from me Vivi Yukino, this was just the beginning.” She says to herself, gripping both of her hands on the steering wheel. 

After that fight she had with Vivi and her friend Laurel, she escaped under the debris they put her in. It was a sign that Vivi had luck alongside her, something that this woman loathes about Vivi. Why should the blue haired girl have luck for what her family has done to her? Someday, once she gets her revenge, she’ll honor someone who had sacrificed their life for the greater good. 

Back at Laurel’s car, she finally explains all the things that happened in the few hours before this. “I’m really sorry Vivi, I didn’t know I had powers.” Laurel apologizes as Vivi’s face was just as surprised as shock.

“I can’t believe you have powers.” She starts laughing out of joy. “That is amazing!” She turns to her and holds her hands as Laurel is as confused as ever. “Do you know what this means?”

“I’m not sure we are thinking of the same thing.” Laurel worries, still thinking that her powers are probably too dangerous. 

“No but I have a secret of my own.” Vivi smirks as she opens the car door. “Follow me at my house.” She says to her before shutting the door and walking back to her car. Along the way, Vivi couldn’t help but to squeal a bit like her teenage years. Hearing her best friend having powers was possibly the best thing she’s ever heard. Not only that, she also has some nice powers from that katana Grandma Yukino gave her, the one she killed Shiromori with. 

It was a great feeling she has in her heart. Even if she and Arthur, Sisa too, almost died in that house fire, she’ll help Laurel to control and use her powers properly. At her car, she unlocks it and gets into the driver’s seat before starting it up. Vivi lets out a relaxed and motivated sigh and drives. Laurel follows behind her with Sisa inside. As for the Snow Fox, she waits for a minute before following the two to see where they are going. In her mind, she knew that this was the day that she’ll get her revenge.   
______________________________________________________________________________

Vivi parks her car on the driveway while Laurel parks hers next to Vivi’s. They both get out of their cars and look at each other as if either of them is waiting for the other one to speak. “Here, come inside.” Vivi says, walking down the pathway to her house. Up the porch and open the door, the two make it inside where Vivi looks around to see that her parents weren’t home again and takes Laurel upstairs just like two days ago when she was attacked by the Snow Fox. Sisa stayed in the living room, on the couch so she could take a nap. Upstairs, Vivi and Laurel were at the same door as they were back two days ago when they were both attacked by that strange woman wearing a fox mask. Vivi knocked on the door. “Grandma Yukino?” She calls out. The two wait for Grandma Yukino to open the door which she did.

“Vivi? I thought you were with the guys.” She says in her concerned and confused tone. The woman then turns to Laurel who crosses her arms in shyness. “Miss Inti, I’m glad to see you again. Are you having a great time today?” 

“Well….I’m not sure what to call it.” Laurel said to her before allowing Vivi to speak freely. 

“We need your help.” She says as she brings Laurel inside her room and closes the door. Grandma Yukino could see how excited Vivi looked as if something amazing just happened in front of her eyes. “But you won’t believe it either.”

“Test me my child, I’ve seen that look before.” The elder shows a bit of confidence. “I’ll believe a word you say out of that mouth of yours.” 

Vivi smiles more while Laurel just becomes more nervous than before. “You see…” She places her hand on Laurel’s shoulder. “Laurel here has powers. Ones that can tear through objects and start fires which is very awesome of course.” She turns her head to Laurel who then starts to blush. 

“I mean, it was an accident and almost killed Arthur and I but-” Laurel was about to speak more before she was interrupted by Grandma Yukino shushing her. 

“Laurel, I may say this once, but I can feel a great power inside you that needs to be free from the chains. What you are is a powerful goddess.” Those words that the wise old woman said were enough for Laurel to feel lightheaded. Being a goddess wasn’t what she planned to be when she came to see Vivi for a week or two. Whatever powers she has, need to be found out soon. “I also think that it’s time to show her yours Vivian.” She smiles and looks at Vivi who nods at her grandma.

Laurel jerks her head to Vivi and gasps. “You have powers too?” The surprise in her tone makes Vivi giggle. 

“It’s only when I have that katana.” Vivi explains. “Can I have it please?” She asks Granda Yukino. 

“Go ahead.” She lowers her head and closes her eyes with a gentle smile. Vivi walks over to the case with the special katana inside and opens it, revealing the clean and beautiful katana as it was before. “Just be sure to take good care of it dear.”

“Yes Grandma Yukino.” Vivi respects her advice. Laurel's jaw drops after seeing the katana. It looked magnificent, rare, and powerful. The blue hair girl was careful enough to keep it safe from any accidents. “I’ll teach you in the backyard while we work on your powers.” Vivi says.

“Are you sure we should work on my powers? I don’t want to burn anything down anymore.” Laurel worries again, not wanting to go through that again. 

“You’ll be focusing on objects that are not anything from the house. Plus, my ice powers can help freeze things.” It was starting to sound like she was bragging about it. “So let’s go.” Vivi starts to encourage her, grabbing her hand and taking her out of the room. Grandma Yukino takes the moment to enjoy these moments as she realizes that life was beginning to close on her. The wise elder could feel the end coming in her body as the thought of dying takes over her mind. It wasn’t a secret that she could die soon, but not too soon. The others were expecting a year or two for an eighty-five year old woman who couldn’t get out of her room for a quick second. But they’ll know that her time is coming and need to accept that. Even with the kitsune, Mystery would wish that he could spend more time with her. As she sits on the floor, she starts to pray in a japanese language, to help cleanse her from evil as she’ll be taken up to the sky some time. 

Out in the backyard, Vivi grabs some chopped up wood from the stack that her father usually cuts up for the fireplace and puts it on a metal table in the middle of the yard. Laurel stands right behind the glass door which was covered with curtains so in case Vivi’s parents come home. Laurel still wasn;t sure if this was a good idea or not. The fact that her powers were able to burn down a house wasn’t helping her think positive over all of this. “Vivi, please tell me this is safe.”

“I promise you that it will be.” Vivi says, letting her friend trust her. Sisa goes through the doggy door that Mystery uses all the time, watching her owner focus all of her attention at the wood. She holds out her hands and aims them at the piece of wood. It was a moment of time where everything that was in her head stops and spaces out to the point where the only thing she could think about is to shoot the light beams out of her hands. “You got this.” Vivi encourages her. 

Her breaths were deep and long, a relaxing point. Her hands begin to light up like the sun slowly and steadily. Once she got the hand of this, the beams struck the wood in a flash, evaporating it into ashes. “There, I did it.” She says with a huff. 

“See I told you.” Vivi is proud of her for that and checks the table to see if that beam started a fire, which it didn’t. Even Sisa goes over to her and purrs while rubbing her side on her leg as an affliction of love and happiness. “Look at that, even Sisa is proud of what you did.” The two of them laugh it off before Vivi grabs another piece of wood and places it on the metal table. “Do it again, I dare you.” Vivi challenges her with Sisa going back at a far distance from her owner. 

Laurel smirks at Vivi’s request as she didn’t take a long time to do it as she evaporates the second piece of wood quickly. “This is just fun now. Give me more...and a challenge.” She adds as it was something that Vivi loves to hear. As a challenge Vivi takes the third piece of wood and tosses it into the air. 

Laurel destroys the third piece of wood without hesitation, the ashes falling downwards to the ground. “That’s not a challenge Vivi!” She teases her. “Give me something that I can’t handle.” Laurel wants an expert challenge from the samurai.

Vivi scoffs before pulling out her sword. “Then let’s work with your defenses.” She swings her sword around before sending blocks of ice in Laurel's direction. Laurel shrieks and puts her arms up, surprisingly making a golden shield which blocks Vivi’s attacks. “Whoa.” Vivi whispers to herself as she wasn’t expecting a shield. In her mind, she thought it was some sort of defense mechanism that shoots beams at the attacks. But a giant golden shield right in front of her friend was better too. 

The shield goes away as Laurel puts her arms down. “No way.” At first she should have been terrified at Vivi’s ice blocks from the katana before, now it felt amazing and exciting with the shield. “Awesome! I love these powers!” She cheers, going over to Vivi to hug her, making her hug back. “Thank you for helping me.” 

“Anytime Laurel, does this mean that we can practice tomorrow?” She asks and lets go of Laurel. 

“Sure, I really want to enjoy that again.” Laurel answers delightfully before getting a thought in her head. “Should I tell Lewis about this? I mean I know he loves the supernatural as you do but do you think he’ll handle it?” 

Vivi thinks about this. She did want to tell her about everyone Laurel knows, including Arthur, Lance, and Galahad. Maybe it was time to be honest with her best friend who has powers now. “Actually, I think it’s time to tell the truth Laurel. But I feel like we should go somewhere to do it.”

“At the hotel?” Laurel asks, giving her ideas.

“Umm, no. Somewhere very secret.” Vivi ponders at the thought. “I guess Arthur’s house will do.” She checks her katana as they all went back inside the house. “What I have to show you may make you pass out.”

“Is Lewis proposing to you?” Laurel asks which makes Vivi turn her head at Laurel in confusion as they continue to walk.

“What?” That was the only thing she could say to that. 

“Well if someone was to propose their fiances, I would be the first to pass out before them.” At least she was being honest. “I just can’t contain the joy.” They start walking up the stairs, carrying the conversation with them along the way.

“I’m not sure. As his fiance, I have no idea when he will.” She chuckles before heading back up to Grandma Yukino’s room to return the katana. “Besides, I think he should wait before proposing to me. I know someone who will get a bit frustrated if it’s too early.” And by that, she means Mystery. He has his rules when it comes to protecting his pups, even for Lewis and Arthur. 

She opens the door and walks inside. “Ah, your back.” Grandma Yukino says, greeting her. “How did it go?” She was sitting on her bed, reading a book that looks very old from the girls’ perspective.

“Great. Laurel knows how to attack and defend herself with those powers.” Vivi says as she goes over to the case and opens it up, putting the katana back where it belongs. 

“You know Vivi….” Grandma Yukino speaks again. “I’ve been thinking, holding onto that katana for decades is a very long time. It should have been worn out on me now that I’m old. How about you take it? Since you're the powerful samurai in this generation.” She was willing to hand over the centuries old kantana to her grand-daughter. Vivi didn’t know what to say except to smile and keep the case by her side. 

“Thank you grandma, I’ll take care of it till the day I die.” She makes that promise to her before taking that katana to her room in a safe spot. She then comes back into grandma’s room before looking at her one more time. “Are you okay?” Vivi asks, concerned for her.

“I’m fine dear. Like I said, I’m old and it’s best to have someone stronger than me to take care of this family.” She explains as she closes her book and puts it on the nightstand beside her.

“If you need any company, we could help.” Laurel assists but Grandma Yukino just shakes her head softly.

“No thank you. I’m always in a need for peace and quiet. I think you two were supposed to be somewhere?” She reminds them.

“Right, Arthur’s house.” Vivi says, walking towards the door with Laurel and Sisa who meows. Laurel picks her up so she wouldn’t have trouble taking her downstairs. “I’ll talk to you later Grandma, I love you.” Vivi smiles.

“Love you too.” Grandma smiles back, leaving with Vivi to close the door. 

“Alright, let’s go.” She tells Laurel and the two walk down the stairs and out of the house. “Just follow me to Arthur’s house. That is if he’s still there, or alive.” She quietly says alive not to startle Laurel. “Now, listen Laurel. Whatever I’m going to show you, you cannot tell anyone about this. Okay?” Vivi wants to know if she can really trust Laurel with this.

“Vivi, I will hold onto your secret for as long as I live.” Laurel swears by her heart that she will keep her secret. “Just tell me what to do.”

“Follow me, that’s all.” She gives Laurel a simple instruction as she gets in her car. Laurel and Sisa get in their car and the two begin to drive off to Arthur’s house. As Vivi was driving away, she swore that she'd seen that car from the park before that was parked on the other side of the road. She didn’t think of it as much but to just focus on driving to Arthur’s house. 

Once the two were gone, The Snow Fox slowly drove her car up to Vivi’s driveway as her plans changed. Now, she was going to enter her house and see an old nemesis of hers. Out of her car, she goes to the porch and opens the door which was still unlocked. She didn’t even bring her mask nor dagger since she knows the state of her nemesis. The Snow Fox looks around the room, seeing how clean and neat it was compared to her apartment back in Japan. “Clean freaks.” She mummers, insulting to whoever cleaned up the place. She goes upstairs and walks right in front of Grandma Yukino’s room. “Come on in.” Grandma Yukino said inside the room. The Snow Fox opens the door, unarmed and not wanting to attack or kill her. The old woman glares at her in her bed. “So you’ve come a long way for me, haven’t you?” The young woman puts her hands in her pockets and walks forwards to her.

“My family is not one you should mess with, Miss Yukino.” She says to her, unamused and disappointed. “Unlike your ancestor. She was stupid enough to kill him in the first place.” 

“Mushi knew what she was doing and I didn't want you to go after my grand-daughter because of it. You already attacked her.” She said in a clear, demanding voice.

“I want you to feel the same pain my family had for centuries. I’ve been trying to track you and your family ever since you left Japan. The question is if you are worth my time talking to you?” She doesn’t move from her spot and glares at the wise old woman. 

“I’m dying Ayaka. Talking to me will be your last moments with me.” The truth was that she knew Ayaka years ago when she was just a child. In fact, she was her teacher at an elementary school. Since then, she hasn’t seen Ayaka in years until Vivi told her about the attack from her. “Don’t you think you’re just wasting your time for some centuries old revenge?” 

“I will redeem him!” Ayaka raises her voice at her before huffing in anger. “And if that means to kill everyone in your family, including that stupid fox of yours.” 

“You saw Vivi leave. Why didn’t you follow her instead?” Why come here to talk to me?” 

“It’s like you said. You’re dying. It’s your last moments alive and I’ll make sure they’ll all come with you.” Her smile was evil enough for Mushi to feel like she shouldn’t be this weak to let her do this. “But for now, I’ll leave you to rest. I have eyes everywhere.” Just like that, she leaves Grandma Yukino alone like everytime. She knows that Vivi is capable of protecting herself, unlike Mystery who stays by her side 24/7. If this woman kills Vivi, who knows what will happen next? She lays in bed, resting her eyes as she falls asleep, not dying right now. She could hear the door slamming downstairs along with the sound of a car driving away. It doesn’t mean that the fight is over, but her fight will end soon.


End file.
